Research & Transfer

Democracy builds on common principles such as elections, a division of power, and the rule of law. In practice, democratic institutions often underperform due to executives overstepping the mark, conflicts and power struggles causing a stalemate in the policy process, as well as governance instability.

Many rural areas in the Global South are facing tremendous challenges today, including persistent poverty, demographic pressure, climatic change, and an eroding resource base. Competition over land and resources affects the lives of rural populations in a multitude of ways.

Large parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East have been very seriously affected by COVID-19, with the states of the Global South showing a wide variety of reactions to its onset and the long-term effects of the pandemic continuing to play out today.

The trade war between the US and China and the deadlocks in the World Trade Organisation are two examples of the current crisis of globalisation. We investigate how the world trade order is influenced by domestic concerns, international negotiations, and geo-economic competition.

Around 80 million people have been forcibly displaced by war or political violence worldwide. Several million more have fled their homes because of environmental disasters and socio-economic marginalisation. As there is no immediate end in sight to this steadily increasing global trend, forced migration is one of the most pressing challenges facing world politics today. We focus on the background to this phenomenon in our study regions.

It is not only non-democratic regimes that resort to authoritarian practices. They can increasingly be found in use also in formally democratic states, as the examples of shrinking civic space, populism, and democratic backsliding show.

We work on the politics of climate change. We investigate options to enable low- and middle-income countries to achieve reduced carbon trajectories without compromising economic development and poverty reduction, alongside studying also the role of the Global South in international climate negotiations.

Religion is a key facet of society and affects politics and socio-economic development in a multitude of ways. In recent years, religion has increasingly become a source of contentious behaviour. Terrorist attacks, armed conflict, and xenophobia have all been making headlines here. At the same time, religion can also be a vital contributor to peace.

To overcome war and violent conflict, building and strengthening institutions for peace is crucial. This includes ones helping to support power-sharing in government, security sector reform, and other key processes. We investigate all these phenomena in our research, while paying equal attention to institutions and processes that may be an impediment to peace too.

The Indo-Pacific has emerged as the world’s economic and strategic centre of gravity, an area in which established and rising powers are now heavily competing with one another. Learn more about the GIGA’s research, knowledge-exchange, and policy-advice activities vis-à-vis this mega region, focusing in particular on the perspectives of governmental and non-governmental actors in the Indo-Pacific itself.

China is partner, competitor, and systemic rival to the European Union. But also a political actor that needs to be understood on its own terms. The GIGA offers significant expertise on China’s political and economic development as well as on the country’s role in both regional and global affairs.

The digital transformation underway globally is changing how we live and work, as well as how states relate to each other. Our researchers analyse related opportunities and challenges in the Global South as well as emerging instruments of foreign policy, such as digital diplomacy and cyber sanctions.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine once again raises the question of sanctions’ effectiveness. Economic sanctions are a popular foreign policy tool for addressing a wide range of international issues including armed conflict, human rights violations, and terrorism.

Democracy builds on common principles such as elections, a division of power, and the rule of law. In practice, democratic institutions often underperform due to executives overstepping the mark, conflicts and power struggles causing a stalemate in the policy process, as well as governance instability.

Many rural areas in the Global South are facing tremendous challenges today, including persistent poverty, demographic pressure, climatic change, and an eroding resource base. Competition over land and resources affects the lives of rural populations in a multitude of ways.

Large parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East have been very seriously affected by COVID-19, with the states of the Global South showing a wide variety of reactions to its onset and the long-term effects of the pandemic continuing to play out today.