About Us

The Regional Powers Network (RPN),  jointly established by the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, the University of Hamburg, the University of Oxford, and Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), addresses the rise of regional powers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

The RPN has established a long-term research network in the field of international relations and comparative area studies. Leading research institutions from Europe as well as from the respective regions – including the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in Pretoria and the S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore – are our network partners.

The RPN emphasises the role of regional powers in intra-regional, inter-regional and global contexts. Specific questions concerning the rise of regional powers are being analysed from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective clustered around four focal points:

FP I - Ideas, Interests, Resources and Strategies of Regional Powers
FP II - Regional Powers and Global Order
FP III - Regional Powers and Regional Order
FP IV - International Political Economy and Regional Powers

Questions relevant to each of these focal points have been discussed by internationally renowned scholars at a series of conferences, with a specific conference assigned to each point. The topics of FP I-III were addressed at conferences in Hamburg (15-16 September 2008), Rio de Janeiro (6-7 April 2009) and Paris (8-9 October 2009), respectively. Focal point IV, “International Political Economy and Regional Powers“, will be the topic of the upcoming conference in Stellenbosch (6-7 September 2010).

In its initial phase, the RPN was funded by the “Pact for Research and Innovation” (submitted by Prof. Dr. Joachim Betz, PD Dr. Dirk Nabers and Prof. Dr. Detelf Nolte) for a period of three years (01/2008 – 12/2010). Recently, a graduate school for the study of regional powers has been established at GIGA, funded by the Leibniz Association and the State Excellence Initiative of Hamburg.

GIGA Project Team