{"id":24917,"date":"2025-05-16T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T10:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/?p=24917"},"modified":"2025-11-14T15:08:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T14:08:14","slug":"in-conversation-with-alejandro-rodiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/in-conversation-with-alejandro-rodiles\/","title":{"rendered":"Chatting with Alejandro Rodiles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Behind every academic contribution lies a personal journey <\/strong>\u2013 <\/strong>of<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>questions asked, <\/strong>challenges embraced<\/strong>, <\/strong>and <\/strong>convictions tested. In this edition of <\/strong>\u2018<\/strong>The Person behind the Academic<\/strong>,<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>we <\/strong>had the pleasure of speaking with <\/strong>Professor Alejandro Rodiles<\/strong>. <\/strong>What follows is the conversation<\/strong>, <\/strong>uncovering the<\/strong> inspirations and daily rhythms that inform his work.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Welcome, <\/strong>Professor Rodiles, and <\/strong>thank you for accepting our invitation!<\/strong><\/p>\n

We worked together at the Chair of International Law <\/strong>in Jena<\/strong>, but I don<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>t think I ever asked<\/strong>: <\/strong>what <\/strong>drew you to academia, and what led you to choose it over a career in international legal practice when the path split?<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, let me thank\u00a0you for the kind invitation\u00a0\u2013\u00a0I think it\u2019s a very nice exercise, and I\u2019m very happy to do this.<\/p>\n

As you know, I started in international law and relations more broadly\u00a0as a Mexican diplomat, working first at the policy planning staff of the Foreign Minister (it was Jorge Casta\u00f1eda Gutman, a very interesting guy, a controversial public intellectual indeed), and then at the Office of the Legal Adviser\u00a0of the Foreign Ministry\u00a0(the Legal Adviser back then was today\u2019s ICJ judge, Juan Manuel G\u00f3mez Robledo). Then I began my PhD in Munich with Georg Nolte, but I soon got a call to join Mexico\u2019s mission to the UN for its fourth participation in the Security Council, 2009\u20132010. I\u00a0remember that Georg Nolte told me it was an offer I couldn\u2019t refuse. So, I interrupted my PhD and went to New York.<\/p>\n

New York was a great experience, no doubt. But then I found myself at this point where I had to make up my mind:\u00a0stay on the\u00a0diplomatic path, maybe join the Mexican Foreign Service as many encouraged me to do back then, or return to academia. Honestly, I had a kind of existential crisis because I enjoyed both.<\/p>\n

When I was working as a diplomat, I remember being kind of frustrated that I couldn\u2019t really dig deeper into the issues I worked on, and I often felt I was only scratching the surface of the things that really interested me. But then again, I liked the action and the possibility to experience first-hand what is actually going on, and that\u2019s something I miss in academia\u00a0sometimes.<\/p>\n

On the personal side, it was something I discussed a lot with Paola, my wife: where did we want to live with a little baby? Berlin proved to be an excellent choice.\u00a0Professionally, three people played an important role in helping me decide whether to pursue an academic career or stay in diplomacy. The first was Georg Nolte. He strongly encouraged me to continue with the PhD, believing in the value of my research and that I had meaningful things to say. It\u2019s always important to see that the people you admire\u00a0most believe in you.<\/p>\n

The second was Benedict Kingsbury, whom I met a couple of times in New York. Our discussions helped me understand many connections behind what was going on at the UN\u00a0\u2013 and that\u00a0also made me realize what I really wanted: to get beneath\u00a0the surface of things and understand their\u00a0multiple relations.<\/p>\n

The third one was Helmut Aust, a very good friend. He was about to publish his beautiful book on complicity and the law of <\/u>state responsibility<\/u><\/a> with CUP. We had a lot of conversations about our PhD projects\u00a0back then in Munich (mostly during walks in the English Garden), and in a way, both theses \u2013 and\u00a0later books \u2013\u00a0were shaped by our\u00a0friendship. I think he even got the publication news while visiting us in New York. That gave me a great impulse to say: well, I really want to do that too.<\/p>\n

I can imagine! <\/strong>S<\/strong>peaking of academia<\/strong>,<\/strong> allowing you to dig deeper into <\/strong>certain<\/strong> topics<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>y<\/strong>ou<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>have spent much of your career thinking about global structures<\/strong>:<\/strong> security, governance, and resilience. Do you <\/strong>recall<\/strong> what first sparked your interest in these areas?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Very clearly so, actually. I wrote about it in the acknowledgements of my 2018 book on coalitions of the willing<\/u> and international law<\/u><\/a>, which was the result of my PhD thesis:\u00a0it was the Iraq War in 2003.\u00a0You have to imagine it: I was finishing my law studies at UNAM and beginning to work at the Foreign Office. Then 9\/11 happened, and\u00a0the world changed. The aftermath of that pushed me to look more deeply into global governance, global security, counter-terrorism, etc, and how these things actually work. The \u2018coalition of the willing,\u2019 gathered by the United States,\u00a0which perpetrated the illegal war\u00a0in Iraq, was framed in this way: if the UN isn\u2019t willing or able\u00a0to do\u00a0the right thing, then we\u2019ll do it our way. That was a shocking moment for me \u2013 to see how international law was simply bypassed. Today, we are almost accustomed to that, but in the early 2000s,\u00a0before 9\/11, there was a lot of optimism (maybe short-sighted, in retrospect) in the flourishing of our discipline.<\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t just that military\u00a0coalition. There were all these\u00a0global security coalitions\u00a0the US\u00a0assembled\u00a0after 9\/11 for regulatory purposes (PSI, FATF, GCTF, etc.), all based on the same logic: creating\u00a0separate structures from the existing international legal ones yet\u00a0still meant to rule. It was this multiplication of regulatory frameworks that made me want to look more deeply into global governance mechanisms\u00a0\u2013 not just as parallel developments\u00a0as the literature of that time mostly portrayed them, but as stuff that intensely interact and shape each other. That\u2019s also why the subtitle of my book is \u201cThe Interplay between Formality and Informality\u201d.<\/p>\n

These bigger-than-life events affect us and often shape our interests. <\/strong>While preparing for this conversation, <\/strong>I wondered<\/strong>: <\/strong>y<\/strong>ou grew up in Mexico City in the 1980s and early <\/strong>\u2018<\/strong>90s, in the long shadow of the 1985 devastating earthquake. Did this influence your interest in resilience and governance?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Definitely, but not so much the 1985 earthquake, because back then I was a kid living in Bonn\u00a0with my mother, Sof\u00eda. But it was awful, because there was no\u00a0Internet and WhatsApp, and the telephone lines were dead for more than a week. It was a\u00a0really anxious time, because\u00a0we\u00a0had no way of knowing what was happening to my grandmother, for example.\u00a0That was my experience from Bonn, but of course it stays in your mind \u2013 and\u00a0you get to grasp\u00a0how important earthquakes are for people living\u00a0along\u00a0with these geological forces.<\/p>\n

Then, in 2017, just at the beginning of my academic career\u00a0at ITAM, there was another big earthquake in Mexico City. Actually, on the very same date\u00a0as the one in 1985 (19 September). Luckily, nothing happened to my family and closest friends, but I witnessed everything very closely.<\/p>\n

At that point, I wasn\u2019t yet researching\u00a0on resilience, but it was already on my mind. I could really see firsthand how it\u00a0works: on the one hand, it\u2019s really marvellous\u00a0how people self-organize and cope with severe stress; the solidarity and capabilities that emerge are\u00a0very positively striking. But it\u2019s also negatively striking how resilience is often employed to shift responsibility\u00a0away from\u00a0the public authorities who are supposed to act in the first place. I think this tension is almost always present in resilience discourses.<\/p>\n

Maybe one more thing: when I hear discussions about resilience, especially among academics and people working in international organizations,\u00a0there\u2019s a lot of hope placed on it. But when you look at how resilience is actually experienced in places where vulnerability is an everyday condition, you see that resilience is not a project. It\u2019s just the everyday life of many people in the Global South. That was very present in the aftermath of the 2017 earthquake.<\/p>\n

Indeed<\/strong>, I <\/strong>believe<\/strong> resilience <\/strong>is often<\/strong> a necessity created by circumstances. <\/strong>Thinking of<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Global <\/strong>S<\/strong>outh and North<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013<\/strong> and<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>as yo<\/strong>u<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>ve already <\/strong>touched on your trajectory between Germany and Mexico<\/strong> \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>you<\/strong> were <\/strong>raised in two intellectual traditions<\/strong>.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>How <\/strong>have <\/strong>they<\/strong> shape<\/strong>d<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>the way you think about law and politics? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I remember you once said that the sound of Mexico City is the music of the<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>street<\/strong> organs<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 <\/strong>instruments, brought to Mexico by German immigrants<\/strong>, still bear<\/strong>ing<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>the names of Berlin<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>s streets where they once played. Does that echo between places shape how you see the world?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a very nice question.\u00a0So, you have these organs, played by people on the street for some coins in return, always wearing very nice uniforms, keeping everything from the original time when the instruments were brought from Berlin to Mexico \u2013 all built in Sch\u00f6nhauser Allee.<\/p>\n

However, the original German sound has been\u00a0beautifully distorted over the\u00a0years and due to bad maintenance, and this sound\u00a0fits perfectly into the charming and creative chaos of Mexico City. The city is always surrounded by sounds \u2013 many\u00a0kinds. It\u2019s loud, but not unpleasant. So, to me, these street organs are\u00a0a beautiful example of the hybrids we inhabit\u00a0all the time. They remind me that even when you live in one place, you\u2019re always experiencing it from many others.\u00a0That\u2019s my answer specifically on the organs \u2013 these\u00a0beautiful \u201cBerlin-Chilango\u201d artefacts.<\/p>\n

About intellectual traditions\u2026in terms of legal education\u00a0and tradition, my experience at UNAM was not that far away from the one in Continental Europe,\u00a0and Germany in particular.\u00a0But being raised in two very different cultures is something else. On the one hand, it\u2019s kind of schizophrenic, because you don\u2019t really know where you belong to, and you are always missing the other part.\u00a0But it also has a\u00a0huge\u00a0advantage, especially for international lawyers\u00a0and people trying to think globally: you really get to deeply\u00a0understand that there is no one right answer, no one right way of seeing the world\u00a0and of doing things. Some things work here, others there. That sensibility \u2013 knowing there are many different \u2018Weltanschauungen,\u2019\u00a0and possibilities of world-making, that there is right and wrong at the same time \u2013\u00a0that is, I think, really useful for someone who tries to do international law.<\/p>\n

Considering <\/strong>the <\/strong>advantages <\/strong>of<\/strong> diversity, do you think there<\/strong> is<\/strong> something <\/strong>distinctly<\/strong> Mexican <\/strong>in<\/strong> its approach to international law <\/strong>\u2013 something <\/strong>the world <\/strong>could<\/strong> learn from?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think you can see this from two connected perspectives. One has a lot to do with our culture and negotiation skills. I think Mexican diplomats are good negotiators because of our way of being\u00a0(a culture built on so many cultures \u2013 \u201cMexico is many Mexicos\u201d as the Zapatistas made clear), and that helps build bridges between opposing positions \u2013 something\u00a0that has been very much recognized in international fora.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s also something else, which was still very present when I started working at the Mexican Foreign Office, alongside people like Juan Manuel G\u00f3mez Robledo\u00a0and Joel Hern\u00e1ndez: a self-awareness of Mexico\u2019s special position \u2013 call it a \u2018middle power,\u2019 or \u2018semi-peripheral\u00a0nation\u2019 \u2013 and I know all the difficult debates about these terms, but I think it\u2019s clear what I mean. Mexico isn\u2019t a small country: it has economic power, a large population, and it is geopolitically\u00a0strategic, but of course, we\u2019re not the most developed country in every sense.<\/p>\n

That position has led to a very genuine and profound understanding of the importance of law in international affairs, in the sense of being the common language that we need in order to get along with each other.\u00a0That explains why Mexico has been a promoter of the international rule of law\u00a0\u2013 not of the internationalization of the rule of law, which is very different.\u00a0This goes back to an intellectual tradition very nicely\u00a0described by Francisco-Jos\u00e9 Quintana in an article<\/u><\/a> in the European Journal of International Law about Jorge Casta\u00f1eda\u00a0(the father of my former boss), who inspired much of this way of thinking, also beyond Mexico.<\/p>\n

This diplomatic sensitivity is not something exclusively Mexican, but it\u2019s something I have learned as a Mexican international lawyer.<\/p>\n

Speaking of<\/strong> fostering <\/strong>a<\/strong> common language: <\/strong>w<\/strong>hat are the books you wish every scholar<\/strong>,<\/strong> no matter the positionality, <\/strong>had<\/strong> read?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s always a difficult\u00a0question because there are so many things. I had a phase where I read a lot of Koskenniemi, which was very important \u2013 especially\u00a0his articles on global governance<\/u><\/a> and constitutionalism<\/u><\/a>. They really helped me understand what was happening in the late 1990s and early 2000s, how international law and global governance started to interact, while many new trajectories of ruling were being explored.<\/p>\n

I also love Benedict Kingsbury\u2019s article on sovereign<\/u>ty<\/u>\u00a0<\/u>and <\/u>inequality<\/u><\/a>, which I think is a\u00a0very powerful way of showing how these notions, despite their shortfalls and illusions, remain very\u00a0important. And Eyal Benvenisti\u2019s work on fragmentation, especially the idea of the political economy of fragmentation<\/u><\/a> that he developed with George Downs, is very important too \u2013 for me, the best work on the fragmentation of international law.<\/p>\n

There are many other things. But if I think about today and especially of the challenges we face now, the books I actually recommend to students are, first, Andrew Hurrell<\/u>\u2019<\/u>s <\/u>\u2018<\/u>On Global Order<\/u>\u2019<\/u><\/a>. Even though it\u2019s (already!) from an\u00a0older era, it\u2019s still crucial\u00a0for thinking about what kind of order \u2013 if any \u2013 we may still hope for.\u00a0Then I would add Dipesh Chakrabarty<\/u>\u2019<\/u>s <\/u>\u2018<\/u>The Climate of History in a Planetary Age,<\/u>\u2019<\/u><\/a> which is extremely important for understanding the challenges we face as inhabitants of a planet that might become inhabitable. I would probably recommend it together with Anna Tsing\u2019s work\u00a0on scalar dynamics, especially her co-edited book\u00a0on the \u2018<\/u>P<\/u>atchy<\/u>\u00a0<\/u>Anthropocene<\/u>\u2019<\/u><\/a>. It\u00a0complements nicely the work of Chakrabarty: showing that while we face planetary-scale challenges, we also have to think from the many different \u2018patches\u2019 of this world \u2013 the different local contexts. As Tsing reminds us, the\u00a0Anthropocene arrived earlier in many\u00a0places, and it is arriving with different intensities in others. These sensibilities about the scales that are involved in planetary thinking\u00a0are\u00a0something Tsing transmits very profoundly, and this is normatively crucial.<\/p>\n

And maybe one last article: Fleur<\/u>\u00a0<\/u>Johns<\/u>\u2019<\/u>\u00a0<\/u>\u2018<\/u>From Planning to Prototypes,<\/u>\u2019<\/u><\/a> which\u00a0really makes clear\u00a0that international law is undergoing a redesign\u00a0through accelerated technological shifts.<\/p>\n

I often find it insightful to <\/strong>also <\/strong>turn to fiction for inspiration in approaching complex issues<\/strong>. Is there <\/strong>a book of fiction that has touched you and stayed with you over time?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me talk about two. One I read a long time ago, and it\u00a0still stays on my mind, and another I read just recently. As a Mexican, I\u2019ll recommend two novels written by Mexicans.<\/p>\n

The first is \u2018<\/u>Pedro P\u00e1ramo<\/u>\u2019<\/u> by <\/u>Juan Rulfo<\/u><\/a> \u2013\u00a0it is part of the Latin American tradition of \u2018magic realism\u2019. I won\u2019t anticipate much of the story: it\u2019s about\u00a0Pedro, who returns to his village and finds\u00a0himself in a ghost town. He starts to engage with the dead, and I think it becomes a beautiful story about our phantoms and our past\u00a0\u2013 and\u00a0that\u2019s why I think it\u2019s relevant today, because\u00a0in this planetary era, we\u2019re confronted with many different temporalities. That\u2019s a beautiful novel to understand how the past is always present and the present is always already involved in the future. There are many temporalities that affect us at the same time and that generate different affections in different people in different places\u00a0\u2013 and Rulfo transmits that beautifully.<\/p>\n

The more recent one is a novel by \u00c1lvaro Enrigue, <\/u>\u2018<\/u>You Dream<\/u>ed<\/u> of Empires<\/u>\u2019<\/u><\/a>. It\u2019s a very funny story, I had to laugh a lot. It is about the encounter between Moctezuma, the last emperor of the Mexicas (pronounced \u2018meshicas<\/em>,\u2019 and wrongly called Aztecs), and Hern\u00e1n Cort\u00e9s, the conqueror of what today is known as Mexico, and who became the first administrator of New Spain. The funny thing about this is that their diplomatic encounter happens under the influence of magic mushrooms. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s historically true \u2013\u00a0it could be \u2013 but in the novel, they don\u2019t really connect; they just pass each other. Each one of them is sunk\u00a0in their own magic mushroom imperial dream: Hern\u00e1n Cort\u00e9s in his dream of a Catholic\u00a0Empire and all the business opportunities opening up\u00a0for him, and Moctezuma, dreaming of the empire that he wants to preserve, and which was\u00a0actually already vanishing away before Cort\u00e9s came to Tenochtitlan\u00a0(the Mexicas<\/em> had many enemies in Mesoamerica, and that\u2019s what made the Spanish conquest actually possible).<\/p>\n

At the same time, many other encounters happen in the novel \u2013\u00a0and perhaps the most interesting one is between Malintzin (commonly known\u00a0as\u00a0\u201cMalinche\u201d, although the Malinche was actually Cort\u00e9s, the one <\/em>who came <\/em>with <\/em>Mal<\/em>intzin<\/em>), Cort\u00e9s\u2019 translator, diplomatic adviser, and lover, on the one hand, and Papantzin, Moctezuma\u2019s sister, on the other. That encounter is a very different one. It is driven by empathy, solidarity, trying\u00a0to understand each other. After reading it, I kind of wished our national historical narrative had focused more on the story of Malitzin and\u00a0Papantzin, rather than just on these two men high on empires.<\/p>\n

This <\/strong>reminded me<\/strong> about how dynamics between the <\/strong>\u2018<\/strong>core<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong> and <\/strong>\u2018<\/strong>periphery<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong> can be about struggle, but also about creation and transformation. Let<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>s talk a bit more about creation: <\/strong>Do<\/strong> you view <\/strong>academic <\/strong>writing as a form of <\/strong>creative, <\/strong>artistic <\/strong>expression<\/strong>?<\/strong> Did you find that some piece of art inspired you in <\/strong>the <\/strong>academic work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, I do. I mean, we write different types of things \u2013 some\u00a0are more sober, where you have to work with legal materials much more strictly, and that\u2019s important too. But most of what I write has a lot to do with trying to be creative: trying to understand things differently, telling a story from another angle, and through that trying to contribute to a better global understanding of the same event or story.<\/p>\n

That requires imagination\u00a0and the strength to let your own voice come through the norms and traditions of academic writing, which can be stifling; and for that, you need a connection with aesthetics \u2013 it is an aesthetic experience.<\/p>\n

When I write, I go through many phases, including painful ones, but the one I enjoy most is when I listen to music with my earphones, actually very loudly, and just let my mind go and write. Of course, it has to be edited a thousand times afterwards. But I think that\u2019s when the ideas really come through. And that is strictly connected to music in my case. I like rap music, old-school, 2-Pac, but also newer things like Mac Miller, and Clipping is really great!<\/p>\n

Here we go!<\/strong><\/p>\n

[laughing]<\/p>\n

And another thing that I\u2019ve come to understand is how important art is becoming for our profession \u2013\u00a0again,\u00a0especially given the planetary challenges we face. In the climate change literature, one big question now is how to mobilize people to understand the enormous threat we\u2019re facing, because of the difficulty of deep and far-away time perceptions. Economic incentives is one approach, but another \u2013 which\u00a0I think is gaining ground\u00a0and very promising \u2013 is\u00a0to resort to art, aesthetic value<\/u><\/a>, and to affects in exploring reasons to act.<\/p>\n

Yes, I think with art you can talk to the heart<\/strong>s<\/strong> and create symbols<\/strong> \u2013<\/strong> and<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>that<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>s <\/strong>a <\/strong>powerful way of gathering<\/strong> people<\/strong>. You mentioned <\/strong>listening<\/strong> to music. I wonder<\/strong>:<\/strong> when you read or write<\/strong>,<\/strong> where do you <\/strong>usually<\/strong> find yourself<\/strong>? What is typically beside you when you <\/strong>sit down to engage in academic work<\/strong>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I mostly enjoy writing\u00a0here at home, being close to my family \u2013 that gives me a kind of security to write. I love this place and I feel comfortable here. I mean, it\u2019s a very common place and nothing special, but yes,\u00a0I always have a cup of coffee next to me, and my music, and my books around me. Even if I don\u2019t use them all, just having these books surrounding me helps me in a way.<\/p>\n

T<\/strong>hat<\/strong> makes sense. You<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>ve worked in many places and moved from one office to another. Is there something that <\/strong>always comes with you \u2013 something that <\/strong>finds its spot near you<\/strong>? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, yes \u2013 and\u00a0I think you know that, Polina. There are actually two pictures.<\/p>\n

One is a picture of old Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Mexica\u00a0Empire. It\u2019s a beautiful image and a reminder of the power of infrastructures across time and space. I\u2019ve been working\u00a0on infrastructures and international law, so I\u2019m interested in these things. Tenochtitlan was built on and surrounded by a huge lake, and today that is Mexico City. It shows how older infrastructures live within the new ones, how they become this kind of\u00a0hybrid with all their problems\u00a0and wonders.<\/p>\n

Mexico City is (and always was) a megacity built on water, now experiencing serious water stress. But\u00a0it somehow still works. That\u2019s almost a miraculous function of the entangled infrastructures of Mexico City-Tenochtitlan, and there is a wonderful book<\/u><\/a> on that by art historian Barbara Mundy.\u00a0And you can see this history vividly\u00a0here every day, for example, in the metro system, which follows the major avenues of Tenochtitlan\u00a0and those which connected the latter to other towns; in Mexico City\u2019s historic center, you feel like a time traveler, and it\u2019s kind of a twilight zone, very intense. So, this picture reminds me how important these continuous infrastructures are and how they shape our everyday.<\/p>\n

The second picture\u00a0is of Diego Armando Maradona. I bought it in Buenos Aires\u00a0a long time ago, and it is from his debut in\u00a0the Argentinian Major League, with Argentinos Juniors. I\u2019m a huge football\u00a0fan, and my first hero was Maradona. I think he continues to be the greatest player of all time. Though today, my heroes are my sons, David and Mat\u00edas\u00a0\u2013 they\u2019re\u00a0beautiful football\u00a0players.<\/p>\n

I had both pictures in Jena, and I have them now in my office at ITAM.<\/p>\n

What are you currently working on? <\/strong>What <\/strong>may we anticipate in the near future?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I have two broader projects at the moment.<\/p>\n

The first is something I want to do in Spanish, more focused on Mexico, and our relations to the rest of the world, in particular the US. I want to write a book on Mexican Foreign Relations Law \u2013 because, as far as I know, there is none. I think it\u2019s very important to bring together all these constitutional and international legal aspects, along\u00a0with the history of our diplomacy, and\u00a0foreign policy doctrines\u00a0like the Estrada Doctrine, which I\u2019ve worked on in the past and find hugely interesting. That\u2019s more of a long-term project.<\/p>\n

The second is about resilience, which we touched upon on at the beginning of this nice interview. I\u2019m\u00a0trying to understand how resilience is evolving \u2013 or\u00a0has already evolved \u2013 into\u00a0a kind of normativity\u00a0on its own. Not just resilience of<\/em> international law in response to challenges, but resilience as<\/em> a kind of law, at different scales and across them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s driving many of today\u2019s global practices, many things that have to do with world-making and world-unmaking. So I\u2019m really trying to understand this.<\/p>\n

That<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>s really interesting. <\/strong>I<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>m looking forward to reading more about it. Thank you again for agreeing to this interview<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013\u00a0<\/strong>i<\/strong>t<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>s been a real pleasure<\/strong>, <\/strong>and I<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>ve learned <\/strong>a great deal from it<\/strong>. <\/strong><\/p>\n

No, thank you, Polina \u2013\u00a0it\u2019s been a huge pleasure. I enjoyed it very much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Behind every academic contribution lies a personal journey \u2013 of\u00a0questions asked, challenges embraced, and convictions tested. In this edition of \u2018The Person behind the Academic,\u2019\u00a0we had the pleasure of speaking with Professor Alejandro Rodiles. What follows is the conversation, uncovering the inspirations and daily rhythms that inform his work. Welcome, Professor Rodiles, and thank you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6639],"tags":[],"authors":[7010],"article-categories":[3591,3572],"doi":[],"class_list":["post-24917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","authors-polina-kulish","article-categories-interview","article-categories-symposium"],"acf":{"subline":""},"meta_box":{"doi":"10.17176\/20250627-083138-0"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24917"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25171,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24917\/revisions\/25171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24917"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=24917"},{"taxonomy":"article-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-categories?post=24917"},{"taxonomy":"doi","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doi?post=24917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}