Cooperative Security

The close political and economic interdependence between many states means that crises and conflicts affect an increasing number of countries and regions. As a result, security risks emerge that call established political value systems into question.

The planned research program is based on an expanded concept of security that, in addition to classical security concerns, also includes other security-relevant phenomena such as climate change, poverty and hunger, and pandemics. Security challenges are to be examined in their interconnections across economic policy, domestic policy, and defense and military policy. Particular attention will be given to the Federal Republic of Germany within the European context.

The central premise of the research program is that successful and sustainable security policy in Germany can only be achieved through cooperation: between different political levels and domestic actors, as well as with European neighbors and global partners. The conditions for putting a cooperative understanding of security into practice are particularly favorable in Germany for two reasons: first, negotiation and multi-level democracy are central components of the German political system. Second, Germany’s history, geopolitical position, and size make it reliant on thinking and organizing its security in cooperative terms. “Cooperative Security” therefore serves as the central conceptual anchor of the planned research program.

PARTICIPATING RESEARCHERS

Professorship of International Relations
Prof. Dr. Tobias Lenz 

Junior Professorship of Security Policy and Peace
Prof. Dr. Hana Attia 

Professorship for Political System of the Federal Republic of Germany and the EU
Prof. Dr. Michael Koß 

Professorship for Political Science, in particular Public Policy and Law
Prof. Dr. Natascha Zaun

Professorship for Political Science, in particular Political Economy
Prof. Dr. Lukas Hakelberg

Professorship of Public and International Law with a Focus on Sustainability
Prof. Dr. Jelena Bäumler*

Junior professorship of Public Law, European Law and Public International Law, in particular Environmental Law and the Law of the Sea
Prof. Dr. Valentin Schatz*

Professorship for International Law and Dispute Resolution
Prof. Dr. Christian Tams*

Professorship for Economics, in particular Empirical Microeconomics
Prof. Dr. Mario Mechtel*

Professorship for Social-, Organizational and Political Psychology, especially empirical Negotiation Research
Prof. Dr. Roman Trötschel*

Professorship of Business and Social Psychology & Methods
Prof. Dr. David Loschelder*

Professorship for Psychology, in particular Cognitive-, Social- and Economic Psychology 
Prof. Dr. Oliver Genschow*

*associate professorships from other schools

Adjunct Professor

Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Müller-Rommel (Emeritus)

 

Kooperationen

In this research area, Leuphana cooperates both nationally and internationally. For many years, it has maintained a collaboration with the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg, within which the junior professorship “Security Policy and Peace” was jointly appointed.

Starting in 2026, Leuphana will lead the Erasmus Mundus master’s program “International Law of Security, Peace and Sustainable Development” (previously titled “International Law of Global Security, Peace & Development”). Within this framework, Leuphana cooperates with the Universities of Glasgow, Tartu, and Barcelona, the Université libre de Bruxelles, the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals, the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

In addition, there are established connections with the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.