Ideology and Actions

The NWO-funded Vidi project “American foreign policy and liberalism” challenges the idea that the United States has created and sustained a “liberal international order” since World War II. It instead explores the ways in which illiberal ideologies – such as those underpinning racial hierarchy at home…

In this article Fisher, Klein & Codjo introduce the FOCUSdate Project and they show how the sentiment data provide unique abilities to analyze Russia's and Iran's reactions to US policies and events and NGO human rights campaigns.

How do crises produce changes in specific European Union foreign policy areas, and how should we conceptualise these policy changes?

This paper aims to understand the most common underlying problems causing strategic surprise in the context of the European Union.

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.

The policies relating to language pursued by European monarchies and states have been widely studied, but far less attention has been given to their linguistic and cultural policies in territories outside their own borders.

This paper develops a novel theoretical framework for the conduct of postmortems after major foreign policy surprises for the European Union and its member states.

The project focusses on how US views of the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia influenced its strategic interpretations of the region. Being eleven million strong, dispersed across the region and sharing ethnic ties with Communist China, interpretations of the diaspora intersected with key Cold War…

Both Europe and Latin America face challenges globally and at home. Conflicts over land and resources have been resurgent in recent years.

How is Indian foreign policy made? This special issue of the journal India Review, edited by political scientists Nicolas Blarel (Leiden University) and Avinash Paliwal (SOAS University of London) features a number of interesting case studies that bridge the gap between Foreign Policy Analysis and India’s…

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…

European countries struggling how to deal with the issue of returning foreign fighters, women and children from the Caliphate.

Does foreign aid promote human rights?

This book is the first comparative study of estimative intelligence and strategic surprise in a European context, complementing and testing insights from previous studies centred on the United States. It does extensive empirical analysis of open-source material and interviews in relation to three cases…

When former Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström announced in 2014 that Sweden would become the first state to implement a feminist approach to its foreign policy, her idea was met with giggles. [1] But the concept quickly spread around the world. In May 2022, the Netherlands became the 10th state…

‘Crisis and change in European Union foreign policy.’ That is the title of Nikki Ikani’s book that was published last month. We asked the writer five questions about her book. Presentation: 5 & 20 April.

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.

Bert Koenders, professor of Peace, Law and Security at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, has been appointed chairman of the Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV), or foreign policy.

Since 2009-2010, the West viewed China as more assertive. Especially after Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, the country abandoned Deng Xiaoping’s ‘low profile’ foreign policy. Friso Stevens explains in his dissertation where this change has come from. The dissertation defence is on 28 March.

After an initial suggestion of a move toward Israel, India’s Prime Minister Modi has signaled a significant recalibration of his government’s engagement with the Middle East region. Now, India seems to be prioritising strong ties with the Gulf states.

European countries struggling how to deal with the issue of returning foreign fighters, women and children from the Caliphate

English The purpose of this research is to identify and examine the challenges faced by African States in the field of foreign investment with a view to contribute not only to the academic debate, but also to foster awareness and develop the capacities of these States with regard to the drafting, negotiation…

This article 'Shaping the European External Action Service and its post-Lisbon crisis management structures: an assessment of the EU High Representatives’ political leadership' assesses the role, influence and core aspects of the EU High Representatives’ (HR/VPs) “political leadership” in the context…

Citizens, journalists and scholars notice that foreign policy in, and of, the European Union, is ‘de-Europeanising’. Political scientist Daniel Thomas (Leiden University) offers a theoretical exploration of the likely implications. He expects that it will become more difficult for the EU to achieve…

On 4 July, Jorrit Rijpma participated in a roundtable event hosted by the European Policy Centre (EPC) in Brussels.

On 21 April 2016, Leiden University College The Hague, in collaboration with The Hague Institute for Global Justice and the T.M.C. Asser Institute, hosted a book launch and panel discussion for Dr. Joris Larik’s new monograph “Foreign Policy Objectives in European Constitutional Law”, which has recently…

In the past months the COVID-19 pandemic has made the world become more reliant on digital communication and social media. As virtual spectators of diplomacy during these times, it is not difficult to notice that diplomacy is more colourful nowadays.

Political scientist Nicolas Blarel (Leiden University) analyses the background and implications of India’s prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel.

India’s prime minister Narendra Modi admires Israel’s achievements, but structural differences between Indian and Israeli national security situations, differences in the leaders’ worldviews and the absence of a common enemy inhibits stronger strategic rapprochement, argues political scientist Nicolas…

Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn, Chelsea Daymon and David Malet, wrote RESOLVE Network Research Report that examines career foreign fighters who have traversed from one insurgency to another.

The book reinterprets the role of the UN during the Congo crisis from 1960 to 1964, presenting a multidimensional view of the organisation.

What does it mean to do public policy ethics today? How should philosophers engage with ethical issues in policy-making when policy decisions are circumscribed by political and pragmatic concerns? How do ethical issues in public policy differ between areas such as foreign policy, criminal justice, or…

On 26 April 2017, Melanie Fink, PhD candidate at Leiden University and the University of Vienna, participated in a round-table discussion on ‘The “agencification” of EU foreign and defence policy: what role for the EU home affairs agencies abroad?’

The authors delve into the varying degrees to which institutions across different nations connect foreign events to their respective country's domestic affairs.

Understanding what motivates foreign fighters to go and fight in war zones and analysing their social environment offers a basis for preventing them from going.

The proposed research program studies the impact of private foreign investment on development in Indonesia during the years c. 1910-1960.

My research project aims to analyze reasons of the European Union’s (EU) inadequacy to develop a strong Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) with regard to the role of main EU member states, namely Germany and the United Kingdom (UK) and find the answer of how the EU overcome the CSDP question…

The aim of this PhD dissertation project is to study the effect of private foreign investment outside the realm of economics in the context of a colonial structure in Indonesia between c. 1910 and c. 1960.

An exploratory study on the role of family members of those who joined jihadist groups

PhD defence

This collection of essays details the political life of one of the most prominent and gifted American statesmen of the twentieth century. From his early training in international law to his five terms in the US Senate, J. William Fulbright (1905--1995) had a profound influence on US foreign policy,…