Global Interventions and Conflicts

Research and teaching at the professorship are situated at the intersection of Peace and Conflict Studies, International Relations, and Comparative Politics. At the core are the interconnections between external interventions (particularly sanctions), conflicts, and domestic politics in the Global South. With a regional focus on sub-Saharan Africa, the array of topics that fall within the scope of the professorship includes intervention instruments such as sanctions and peace operations; the success and failure of conflict management and external democracy promotion; and the persistence and change of authoritarian regimes, as well as their legitimation amid external pressure. The Leibniz competition project associated with the professorship investigates the ending of external interventions into armed conflict with a focus on exit dilemmas and post-exit legacies. The professorship is primarily concerned with conducting empirical-analytical research that employs qualitative methods but also engaging in the creation of large-N datasets and original survey experiments. Policy advice and knowledge exchange play an integral role in the research process.