The research group on governance of crises studies phenomena, dynamics and actors related to crisis governance. The Leiden University Crisis Research Center (CRC) is part of this Research Group.

How do citizens think about government debt? This project investigates the political roots of government debt crises by exploring the drivers of citizens’ preferences towards fiscal policies.

In this study, Bibi van den Berg and Sanneke Kuipers from ISGA, explore the ways in which cyber-related incidents may lead to crises

This book explores how ‘crisis’ - as a narrative, concept, grammar, and experience - structures time and space.

Un)timely Crises explores how ‘crisis’—as a narrative, concept, grammar, and experience—structures time and space. This collectively written volume extends Bakhtin’s ‘chronotope’ to challenge mobilizations of crisis within neoliberal governmentality. The book explores how contemporary crises can trigger…

When EU member states signed the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007, they did not anticipate the manifold crises in store for them over the following years. Instead of the intended consolidation of a Union which had just gone through its most profound modernisation and biggest round of enlargements, the EU has…

The Issues beneath the Surface

Examining policy integration's adjustment to diverse implementations in cross-border crisis management, the article analyses institutional choices' impact on the process.

Online data breaches are recurrent and damaging cyber incidents fors organizations worldwide. This study examines how organizations can effectively mitigate reputational damages in the aftermath of data breaches by hacking, through situational crisis communication strategies.

How do humanitarian organisations adapt cyber incidents to their specific priorities and needs, and how can they adapt strategies of other organisations?

Introducing five papers about of the impact of crises on the governance, decision-making, and institutional design of the Euro Area, political scientists Valerie D'Erman (University of Victoria, Canada), Paul Schure (University of Victoria, Canada) and Amy Verdun (Leiden University) summarise the 'lessons…

How do governments distribute resources across economic sectors during a crisis? And why do some sectors receive more than others? The recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgency of these questions. In this paper, we explore the extent to which a political economy…

On 12 May, GTGC Deputy Coordinator Valentina Carraro presented her work during the symposium “EU Crises: Rethinking European integration theories” at Maastricht University. The symposium was organised as part of the farewell event for the retirement of Prof. Tannelie Blom.

Hegemony and World Order explores a key question for our tumultuous times of multiple global crises.

From recurrent oil disasters to the outbreak of contagious diseases or major fires. Public organisations often learn too little from such crises, according to public administration specialist Wout Broekema. Staff frequently fail to communicate information adequately, which means that lessons are often…

Join this lecture from professor Daniel Aldrich at the Spanish Steps in Wijnhaven on Wednesday 3 November. Dr. Sanneke Kuipers, associate professor in Crisis Governance, will be the moderator of the lecture and she and professor Aldrich give us a preview of the event.

Markus Kornprobst writes about managing international crises.

The Executive Board appointed Sanneke Kuipers as full professor effective January 1, 2022. Her chair is Crisis Governance. She combines this chair with her position as education director of ISGA, the Institute of Security and Global Affairs. A conversation about working 24/7 in crisis management, her…

Nikki Ikani, Assistant Professor Intelligence and Security at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA), has recently published her latest monograph 'Crisis and change in European Union foreign policy' with Manchester University Press.

During the four-day meeting (25-28 February) organised by AEGEE-Leiden Peter Rodrigues - Professor of Immigration Law -was invited to speak about the refugee crisis for 300 international students.

The 22nd of march 2023, political scientist Lukas Spielberger will defend his dissertation ‘Lessons from Europe for the study of international bank cooperation’. He wrote his thesis about the cooperation of central banks during international financial crises: ‘central banks pay more attention to shared…

Wars, climate change and the effects of covid have caused a global decline in children’s well-being. In her inaugural lecture Ann Skelton, Professor of Children’s Rights in a Sustainable World, points to the disastrous effects of multiple interacting crises.

PhD defence

This network brings together scholars whose work explores how contemporary frameworks of crisis produce experiences of the present, rehash or disrupt established narratives of the past, and broker specific outlooks on the future. We collaborate in studying these crisis-scapes and exploring how they…

EU foreign policy has become increasingly politicised over the past years, amongst others as a consequence of the succession of crises. Crises may engender processes of crisis framing and contestation. This article focuses on how the policy demands being voiced in these processes of contestation are…

In this ‘Educatips’ column, Psychology lecturers share their most important lessons about teaching. This month: Sepideh Saadat guides a support group for students who struggle with the Israel-Hamas war. ‘Some of them feel guilty about enjoying life while their family is suffering.’

Explaining the origins , patterns and outcomes of crisis management efforts.

This research cluster is a part of the Institute of Political Science’s research programme ‘Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviour’. Its members investigate the drivers of political conflict and various types of crises. They study how citizens, political institutions and international organizations…

Conference, Symposium

On Monday-Wednesday 10-12 June 2019, Jeroen Wolbers, Wout Broekema and Sanneke Kuipers represented the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) at the fourth edition of the Northern European Conference on Emergency and Disaster Studies (NEEDS).

In the track Governance of Crisis, you will be familiarized with the main body of knowledge on strategic crisis management.

Between 5 and 8 September, PhD Candidate Esteban Szmulewicz attended the 45th annual Conference of the European Group for Public Administration (EGPA), which was organised in close cooperation with The Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb and other key partners.

This one-year, English-taught Master's programme offers insights on general developments as well as the specific challenges in the field of the governance of crisis and security, with in-depth knowledge of sub-fields of crisis and security management.

This article offers a typology for organizational and institutional crisis management that portrays three sorts of crises: a crisis in an organization, a crisis to the organization and a crisis about the organization.

From Crisis to Critique

The volume is one-stop shopping for crisis studies and a number of closely related fields, providing a window onto the latest thinking in the field. The articles reflect cutting edge, state of the art scholarship and pose key questions for research and practical development.

Study information

Lecture, Research Seminar

Crises like climate change and loss of biodiversity pose serious challenges for public governance, from the local to the global scale. With the Centre for Governance of Sustainability we contribute to addressing these governance challenges. Our focus is on how policy processes and governance practices…

Using the League of Nations’ responses to early crises as an explorative historical case study, Political Scientist Gisela Hirschmann investigates how international organisations perceive and respond to existential threats.

Having encountered a series of shocks that pose an existential threat to our livelihoods, our societies have become increasingly polarized. Shortly after two years of lockdowns due to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine boosted at a global scale a polycrisis that intersects energy shortages, refugees,…

EUMOTION explores the role of emotions expressed by political elites (at EU- and member state-level) in framing the EU’s policy options during international crises.

Intelligence of the crowd, or in other words, intelligence of a large, random collective, exists mostly in social media platforms such as twitter. The collective does not comprise (at least not necessarily) experts on crises, just regular people mostly. Nevertheless, there is valuable intelligence to…

What makes some international organisations more likely to succumb to crises where others manage to survive or even thrive? And what can international organisations do to become resilient and withstand existential challenges? Political Scientist Gisela Hirschmann (Leiden University) studied the example…

The coronacrisis is emerging as the ultimate test for political leaders. How do national political leaders get ahead or behind ‘the curve’ of fast-changing dynamics. Martin Lodge (London School of Economics and Political Science) and Arjen Boin (Leiden University Institute of Political Science) look…

This project investigates the capacities of EU institutions to coordinate the responses of member states to critical events.

Follow an in-depth course in crisis communication in The Hague at Universiteit Leiden. Crisis situations are diverse. Worldwide attacks have shown how important it is as a political leader to be visible, bring words to chaos, provide perspective and offer hope for a country, region or city in shock.