Are you thinking about studying Global Conflict in the Modern Era? Learn more and watch the introduction video.

All players on the world stage operate strategically in order to safeguard their interests. Political scientists at Leiden University cast light on this volatile interplay of forces. Their research helps voters, NGOs, governments and international organizations make smart choices in this complex and…

This collection of seventeen essays takes its inspiration from the scholarly achievements of the Dutch historian Jan Lucassen. They reflect a central theme in his research: the history of labor.

Food waste is a defining inefficiency of the modern food system, with profound implications for resource use, climate change, and circular economy transitions. This dissertation examines food waste through two complementary lenses: the prevention of avoidable food waste and the valorization of unavoidable…

This recently released book takes a critical view of conceptual issues and practical problems that inevitably emerge when ‘excellence’ takes center stage in science systems in the Global South. What is ‘excellent science’? And how to recognize and assess it? After decades of inquiry and debate there…

The role of material production as a driver of environmental impacts is increasing, which calls for a better understanding of global material flows. This thesis explores the role of in-use stocks of products, buildings and infrastructure as a key driver of global material demand and discusses the implications…

A modern ship design process is subject to a wide variety of constraints such as safety constraints, regulations, and physical constraints.

Research at Leiden University College focuses on Global Challenges: Sustainability, Prosperity, Diversity and Peace and Justice.

To limit the effects of climate change, global average temperature since pre-industrial measurements are to be kept well below 2 °C preferably even at 1.5 °C.

Exchanges between different cultures and institutions of learning have taken place for centuries, but it was only in the twentieth century that such efforts evolved into formal programs that received focused attention from nation-states, empires and international organizations.

As part of the lecture series 'Religion Matters', Sven Gins (RUG) will speak about moving statues and other ingenuous devices in late medieval France. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, March 13, 17:00-18:00.

In what way is constructivist logic able to account for both the role of the judging agent in inference and the universal claims of logical validity?

Course, Summer School

In Migration and Membership Regimes editors Ulbe Bosma, Gijs Kessler and Leo Lucassen bring together ten essays in an analytical framework which looks beyond the Transatlantic migration of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in a deliberate attempt to incorporate the experience of earlier periods…

The seminar series on ‘Diversity and Inclusion in Global Science’ aims to foster debate on inequalities in science across the world.

Rising geopolitical tensions are causing states and national elites to innovate their use of the past for present-day political ends. This is certainly true for the People’s Republic of China, which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2024 amid mounting superpower rivalry, ideological tensions with the…

The Uses of Justice in Global Perspective, 1600–1900 presents a new perspective on the uses of justice between 1600 and 1900 and confronts prevailing Eurocentric historiography in its examination of how people of this period made use of the law.

An interdisciplinary collection of the best international scholarship on Muslim youth.

Honorata Mazepus and Jaroslaw Kantorowicz are assistant professors at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs. Mazepus and Kantorowicz are one of the authors of this article in Nature on the role of national identity on public health support during global pandemics.

As part of the ongoing cooperation programme between LEAD at Leiden University and the National University of Singapore since 1999, the Singapore Institute of Biology (SIBiol) had requested the LEAD Programme to participate in the Commemoration of ‘Fifty Years of SIBIOL’ in Singapore in 2004, and as…

Security and safety challenges rank among the most pressing issues of modern times. Challenges such as cyber-crime, terrorism, and environmental disasters impact the lives of millions across the globe. The course will introduce you to this broad theme in an increasingly complex world.

The idea of global governance and trust in international institutions are apparently getting into deep water. But is there a legitimacy crisis? Not according to international élites, as Jan Aart Scholte (Leiden University), Soetkin Verhaegen (Maastricht University) and Jonas Tallberg (Stockholm University)…

The Duke-Leiden Institute in Global and Transnational Law is a one-month programme providing a strong foundation for those interested in international and comparative law as well as for those planning to study law in the United States. The programme will focus on subjects such as trade agreements, human…

Wetland plants are distinguished from plants of other terrestrial ecosystems by their adaptations to specific habitat stresses, including waterlogged and flooding and the subsequent abundance of phytotoxic compounds.

On June 9-10 2016 Dr. E. Devroe of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) was invited as a key-note speaker on ‘Intelligence Led policing and community oriented policing’ at the annual meeting of the ‘Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’ (OSCE), Transnational Threats Department,…

The cry for decolonization has echoed throughout the museum world. Although perhaps most audibly heard in the case of ethnographic museums, many different types of museums have felt the need to engage in decolonial practices. Amidst those who have argued that an institution as deeply colonial as the…

In this PhD study, I aim to deepen our understanding of the influence of major mycorrhizal types, namely arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) and ectomycorrhizae (EM), on the global soil carbon cycle and their potential distribution changes under future environmental shifts.

On 17 January 2024 Ying Wang successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

The STRINGS project is mapping development pathways for science, technology and innovation that best address the UN Sustainable Development Goals. A consortium of seven universities led by Tommaso Ciarli at SPRU at the University of Sussex and the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) have worked…

This thesis describes the genetic and prokaryotic diversity of giant barrel sponges.

On 17 December 2018, Dejian Kong defended his thesis 'Civil Liability for Damage caused by Global Navigation Satellite System'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. P.M.J. Mendes de Leon.

This project envisions a broad evaluation of 20th century models of human development over the life course (ontogenesis, human constitution), including socialist and capitalist conceptions across both Eastern and Western Europe.

Understanding the water use of power production is an important step to both a sustainable energy transition and an improved understanding of water conservation measures. However, there are large differences across the literature that currently present barriers to decision making.

As part of the Paris Agreement, countries across the world agreed to support developing countries to invest in climate mitigation and adaptation through a Green Climate Fund. However, developed countries have failed to meet funding commitments for the Green Climate Fund–the flagship program financing…

Leiden University College The Hague: Liberal Arts & Sciences, Global Challenges.

This UNESCO Chair at CWTS aims to contribute to UNESCO’s agenda to foster diversity and inclusion in science. The chair has two main lines of work:

Dr. Joris Larik, Assistant Professor of Comparative, EU and International Law at LUC The Hague, has co-authored a report entitled 'UN 2.0: Ten Innovations for Global Governance 75 Years beyond San Francisco'.

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 authors examine the efforts towards implementing minimum labor standards in global supply chains through the lens of corporate social responsibility

On Wednesday 24 September 2025 Marija Šerić successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

The main aim of this project is to reveal and unravel the invisible histories of the UN, transcending the dominant Western perspective to recover the historical agency of Global South actors. The research will investigate how the UN has both facilitated and limited their role in shaping global order…

This article by Malte Reimann and Antonio Cerella explores how politics and medicine have become deeply intertwined, using the thought of Roberto Esposito to reimagine this relationship through the lens of an affirmative biopolitics.

This article describes the creation of an app that can help raise climate awareness and the action globally.

It is often said that the true character of a person is only revealed in a crisis. In these days, the coronavirus causes concern about the true state of the multilateral system. Political scientist Gisela Hirschmann (Leiden University) is worried about the future of multilateralism.

In Slaving Zones: Cultural Identities, Ideologies, and Institutions in the Evolution of Global Slavery, fourteen authors—including both world-leading and emerging historians of slavery—engage with the ‘Slaving Zones’ theory.

Lecture, Leiden University Environmental Humanities Series

Which consumer groups post the greatest cost to public health and the planet through their food choices, and how can we use this fine-scale information to accelerate a sustainable dietary transition?

An interdisciplinary and innovative research group combining History, underwater archaeology, GIS and wood provenancing methods.

The authors provide an approach for eliciting population’s preferences in order to calculate weights for use in the optional weighting step in Life Cycle Assessment.