Forschungsprojekte

Since the Cold War's end, militaries have played varied roles in democratic backsliding - from leading coups to supporting or resisting autocratic moves. This project systematically explores how armed forces shape the erosion, collapse, or defense of democracy worldwide.
DFG, 2025-2028

This project investigates the most potent weapon of digital authoritarianism - lawfare in the digital realm in South and Southeast Asia in general and Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Thailand in particular. Building on previous research, it creates the first database in the world on the range of laws used for digital repression of civil society by autocratic/autocratising states, its impact on democracies and civil liberties, and countermeasures for democratic resistance and resilience.
Luminate, 2025-2027

This project will critically examine the societal discourse surrounding ethnic politics in mainland China, focusing on how intellectuals utilized various philosophical, theoretical, and cultural resources while adapting, appropriating, and rearticulating ideas to engage with the subject. It will shed light on the critical-mindedness and agency of contemporary Chinese intellectuals and enhance our understanding of intellectual praxis and knowledge production in a non-Western context.
DFG, 2025-2027

In its second funding phase, the WONAGO project continues to investigate powerful world order narratives in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. It particularly aims to understand those perceptions in these regions that - as currently in the Ukraine war - differ significantly from prevailing ideas in the U.S., the EU, and their allies.
BMBF, 2024-2027

Religiöse Würdenträger setzen sich vielerorts für den (interreligiösen) Frieden ein und nutzen beispielsweise ihre Rhetorik, um für Frieden zu werben. Die Wirksamkeit der Rhetorik resultiert aus dem Zusammenspiel von religiösen Würdenträgern als Botschaftern und dem Inhalt ihrer Worte - der Botschaft. Das Projekt untersucht die (vergleichende) Wirksamkeit religiöser Würdenträger als Friedensbotschafter und Inhalte von Friedensbotschaften. Zudem werden Auswirkungen einer Intervention untersucht.

The rapid loss of biodiversity and ongoing climate change are also the result of intensive agriculture. At the same time, they jeopardize agriculture and food security. The Leibniz Lab "Systemic Sustainability" brings together relevant knowledge in science and society on this fundamental challenge in order to promote the development and implementation of systemic solutions.
Leibniz Association, 2024-2027

Das vom Auswärtigen Amt geförderte Digital Transformation Lab (DigiTraL) des GIGA analysiert die politischen Treiber und Konsequenzen der globalen digitalen Transformation. Dabei ist insbesondere der Globale Süden ein wichtiger Akteur und Gestalter dieses Wandels.
FFO, 2024-2025

The fight against climate change continues to be hindered by campaigns of corporate and other actors who seek to prevent global and/or national action on climate change. This research group is set up to a joint and comparative research agenda on climate obstruction in and across key Global South countries. The lead institutions are the GIGA and the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ).
DAAD/CAPES, 2024-2026

In recent years, the world has experienced an unprecedented number of mass protest events. Yet despite valuable research endeavours, one area that has not been systematically addressed is the conditions under which such protests turn violent. This is a significant limitation, as violent protests have serious detrimental effects: They harm people as well as infrastructure, erode trust between citizens and government, and polarize societies. To address this shortcoming, the Dynamics of Mass Protest (DMP) project will systematically study the heterogeneous and dynamic nature of protests.
DFG, 2024-2026

HNC³ bündelt die China-Kompetenzen der öffentlichen Hochschulen sowie der außeruniversitären Forschungseinrichtungen in der Metropolregion Hamburg. Vor dem Hintergrund der gegenwärtigen Chancen und Herausforderungen der Zusammenarbeit mit China stellen die Befähigung der einzelnen Konsortialpartner, rechtssichere Instrumente der Zusammenarbeit zu implementieren, sowie die Etablierung geeigneter Austauschformate in Bezug auf China-Kompetenzen zwischen den Konsortialpartnern die Hauptziele dar.
BMBF, 2023-2026

Individual sanctions have become a go-to instrument with which Western powers confront challenges to international peace and security. Shaping the trend of individualizing accountability, the USA and the EU as the main bilateral global sanction senders target individuals and entities to hold them accountable for the instigation of armed conflict, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, or the violation of human rights. INSA seeks to systematically analyze and compare the listing decisions of the USA and the EU.
Deutsche Stiftung Friedensforschung (DSF), 2023-2026

The achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the strategic capability of German development cooperation in the context of the BMZ 2030 reform concept are based on in-depth knowledge of country-specific, regional and global developments. The GIGA provides annual information on actors and governance structures as well as on conflict potentials in countries of the Global South. Additionally, important regional and global trends are analysed with a comparative area perspective.
BMZ, 2023-2027

The Merian Centre for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM) based in Tunis is the first and only Institute for Advanced Studies in North Africa. MECAM’s ambition is to become an intellectual hub that contributes to the emergence of cutting-edge, internationally relevant and visible research in the humanities and social sciences on, from and in the Maghreb and in particular with scholars from the Maghreb. The GIGA coordinates MECAM's publications as well as outreach and transfer activities.
BMBF, 2023-2029

Governments in autocratic and autocratizing contexts may use anti-fake news laws to discredit critical civil society actors as agents of “disinformation” and punish them. Through comparative and cross-learning insights derived from field studies, we seek to map civil society responses against the autocratic use of disinformation laws and strengthen policies for right to information and freedom of speech and expression.
NED, 2023-2025

This research project examines how African agency can be empirically measured using the relationship between African states and the International Criminal Court as a case study. The project seeks to contribute to the relatively small literature focused on advancing academic understanding of Africa's agency in International Relations.
OMT, 2023-2024

In an age of proliferating disinformation, governments in South and Southeast Asia have come out with anti-fake news laws. However, the “weaponization" of such laws can lead governments to control online platforms and censor critics. Our project examines the patterns and processes of the weaponization of such laws against civic actors and countermeasures by the latter. We aim for academic and policy outcomes to improve disinformation regulation while safeguarding digital rights.
Luminate, 2023-2024

This project examines the politics of kin-work performed by families of Tunisian ex-combatants, a form of affective labor that sustains care relations for kin who have migrated to regional sites of jihad. In a hostile public sphere where the jihadi denotes a monstrous form of life, any political advocacy for ex-combatants requires first recovering their humanity. Drawing on street protests, TV talk shows, and other cultural forms, I show how kinship claims reinforce citizenship rights under the Global War on Terror.
AvH, 2022-2024

Bei venezolanischen Migranten in Kolumbien sind Krankheiten wie Syphilis zu einem großen Gesundheitsproblem geworden, mit ernsten Risiken für schwangere Frauen und Kleinkinder. Die medizinische Behandlung steht vor der Herausforderung, die Migranten in ihrer oft prekären rechtlichen und materiellen Situation zu erreichen. Das Projekt untersucht wirksame Möglichkeiten zur Bereitstellung angemessener Präventions- und Gesundheitsversorgungsmaßnahmen vor dem Hintergrund dieser Hindernisse.
GIZ, 2022-2023

Legal identity is a target of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)s and it underpins the SDGs at large. Not having a recognized legal identity can severely implicate people’s human rights and it may cause statelessness. Our project goes to the core of unresolved tensions around theorising sovereign statehood and the authority to make law.
Swedish Research Council, 2022-2023