Professor Gerhard Beestermöller

Professor Emeritus of Theological Ethics at the Luxembourg School of Religion and Society (in Luxembourg) and former Deputy Director of the Institute of Theology and Peace in Hamburg, Germany, expert in political ethics and peace ethics.

Professor Gerhard Beestermöller is Professor Emeritus of Theological Ethics at the Luxembourg School of Religion and Society (in Luxembourg), and former Deputy Director of the Institute of Theology and Peace in Hamburg, Germany. Professor Beestermöller’s research focuses on political ethics and peace ethics.

Prof. Beestermöller was born in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. After completing his studies in Philosophy and Theology at the universities of the Jesuits in Frankfurt am Main and Munich, Prof. Beestermöller wrote a doctoral dissertation in entitled, “Thomas Aquinas and the Just War: Ethics of Peace in the Context of Theology” (Cologne), followed by a habilitationschrift entitled, “The Concept of the League of Nations: Capacity and Limits of the Idea of Outlawing War by the Solidarity of States” (Stuttgart).

In 1984, Prof. Beestermöller began work as an Academic Assistant at the Institute of Theology and Peace in Hamburg, where from 1999-2014 he would serve as Deputy Director. In 1998 he was a Fellow at the German-American Center for Visiting Scholars in Washington, DC. From 2003-2009, he was a Professor at the Catholic University of Applied Sciences in Osnabrück, Germany; and from 2014 until his retirement in 2017, he was Professor of Theological Ethics at the Luxembourg School of Religion and Society (in Luxembourg).

Among Prof. Beestermöller’s publications are Krieg gegen den Irak: Ruckkehr in die Anarchie der Staatenwelt? (Stuttgard 2003), Politik der Versohnung (with Hans Richard Reuter, Stuttgart 2002), Iraq: Threat and Response (with David Little, Münster 2003), Die humanitäre Intervention – Imperativ der Menschenrechtsidee? (Stuttgart 2003), Rückkehr der Folter: Rechtsstaat im Zwielicht? (with Hauke Brunkhorst, München 2006), Der Streit um die iranische Atompolitik: Völkerrechtliche, politische und friedensethische Reflexionen (Stuttgart 2006)