He currently acts as chair of the Center for Transnational Relations, Foreign and Security Policy at the Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science of Freie Universität Berlin.
From 1997 to 2001, he was joint chair of international relations at the European University Institute's Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and the Department of Social and Political Sciences in Florence, Italy.
In his thesis he observes the development of a peace movement (opposed to the installation of medium-range rocket on German soil) and theorised their influence on West-German foreign policy.
Here he argues that regular interactions between non-state actors, that do not act on behalf of national governments, but try to influence the policies of a state, got out of focus.
Based on liberal theory and democratic peace, Risse looks at international norms, speech acts and political change in the South.