German Institute for Global and Area Studies | Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien

German Institute for Global and Area Studies | Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien

DEEN

Dr. Tim Glawion

Associate

Dr. Tim Glawion

  • Short CV

    • Since 10/2023: Associate Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute of African Affairs
    • Since 2022: co-Editor in Chief of Africa Spectrum

    • 2020 - 09/2023: Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute of African Affairs and in the project "The monopoly on the use of force and paradoxes of security – discrepancies between objective and subjective security in the Central African Republic and Lebanon"

    • 2019: Postdoctoral research consultant at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute und Cordaid, among others

    • 10/2018 - 12/2018: DAAD-Post Doctoral Scholar in Haiti

    • 2018: Research fellow at the GIGA Institute of African Affairs

    • 2014 - 2017: GIGA-researcher within the Research Project C10 - Governing people's safety in areas of extremely limited statehood (South Sudan and the Central African Republic), SFB 700

    • 2010 - 2014: Country Researcher Somalia at the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research

    • 2008 - 2009: Social Service Year in Cameroon

    • Education: Doctor of Political Science, University of Freiburg; MA Conflict Resolution at King’s College London; BA Political Science at the University of Heidelberg; DAAD-Scholar Arabic at the Al-Diwan Center, Cairo

    Current Research

    • The Security Paradox

    • The Security Arena

    • Local Security Studies

    • Restoration of State Authority

    Countries and Regions

    • Central African Republic

    • Lebanon

    • Somalia/Somaliland

    Memberships

    • Africa Spectrum, Editor in Chief, since 2022
    • Association for African Studies in Germany, Member of the central committee, since 2022

    Dissertation

    • Security Arena – Local Order Making in the Central African Republic, Somaliland and South Sudan

    Awards

    • Gero-Erdmann Award for Comparative Area Studies 2022, 2022
    • Aquila ascendens – Young Scientists Award for Security Policy, DialogForum Sicherheitspolitik (DFS), 2021
    • Arnold-Bergstraesser-Award, Arnold Bergstraesser Institute (ABI), 2019

    Dr. Tim Glawion

    Associate

    [email protected]

    Highlights

    The Security Arena in Africa: Local Order-Making in the Central African Republic, Somaliland, and South Sudan

    Monograph | Cambridge University Press | 2020

    The Security Arena in Africa: Local Order-Making in the Central African Republic, Somaliland, and South Sudan

    The labels 'state fragility' and 'civil war' suggest that security within several African countries has broken down. As Tim Glawion observes, however, while people do experience insecurity in some parts of conflict-affected countries, in other areas they live in relative security.

    Dr. Tim Glawion

    Associate

    Cross-Case Patterns of Security Production in Hybrid Political Orders: their Shapes, Ordering Practices, and Paradoxical Outcomes

    Peacebuilding | 05/2022

    Cross-Case Patterns of Security Production in Hybrid Political Orders: their Shapes, Ordering Practices, and Paradoxical Outcomes

    Studying 12 cases across the Central African Republic, Haiti, Somaliland, and South Sudan, I investigate (1) where hybrid interactions take place, (2) how they happen and (3) what this means for people’s security.

    Dr. Tim Glawion

    Associate

    Rebel Governance or Governance in Rebel Territory? Extraction and Services in Ndélé, Central African Republic

    Small Wars and Insurgencies | 2023

    Rebel Governance or Governance in Rebel Territory? Extraction and Services in Ndélé, Central African Republic

    Rebel governance assumes a symbiotic relationship between coercion and public goods provision. However, in the rebel-held town of Ndélé, Central African Republic, we find that governance happens in rebel-held territory, but rarely by rebels.

    Dr. Tim Glawion

    Associate

    Anne-Clémence Le Noan

    Publications

    Small Wars and Insurgencies | 2023

    Rebel Governance or Governance in Rebel Territory? Extraction and Services in Ndélé, Central African Republic

    Rebel governance assumes a symbiotic relationship between coercion and public goods provision. However, in the rebel-held town of Ndélé, Central African Republic, we find that governance happens in rebel-held territory, but rarely by rebels.

    Dr. Tim Glawion

    Associate

    Anne-Clémence Le Noan

    Peacebuilding | 05/2022

    Cross-Case Patterns of Security Production in Hybrid Political Orders: their Shapes, Ordering Practices, and Paradoxical Outcomes

    Studying 12 cases across the Central African Republic, Haiti, Somaliland, and South Sudan, I investigate (1) where hybrid interactions take place, (2) how they happen and (3) what this means for people’s security.

    Dr. Tim Glawion

    Associate

    Blog Article | 05/2022

    Wacklige Partnerschaft: Die Zentralafrikanische Republik ist mehr als nur geopolitischer Nebenschauplatz. Europa muss sich als ernsthafte Alternative zu Russland anbieten.

    Dr. Tim Glawion

    Associate

    Qualitative Research | 12/2021

    Studying Insecurity from Relative Safety — Dealing with Methodological Blind Spots

    Dr. Lotje De Vries

    Wageningen University

    Dr. Tim Glawion

    Associate

    The Conversation | 09/2021

    What it will Take to End Civil War in the Central African Republic

    Dr. Tim Glawion

    Associate

    Research Projects

    Research Project | 01/10/2021 - 30/09/2022

    Rebellion, Elections and the Pandemic in the Central African Republic: COVID-19 and its Impact on Deep-seated Patterns of Governance

    The COVID-19 pandemic reaches the Central African Republic (CAR) just when citizens were passing milestones for ending the country's conflicts through a peace agreement and national elections. A new rebellion broke out in late 2020 that hindered medical access to some of the most impoverished areas. An interplay of rebellion, elections and containing the pandemic have become the critical triangle deciding whether CAR can overcome its deep-seated patterns of governance that are stifling political and economic progress.
    DFG, 2021-2022

    Research Project | 15/01/2020 - 31/01/2024

    The Monopoly on the Use of Force and Paradoxes of Security – Discrepancies between Objective and Subjective Security in the Central African Republic and Lebanon

    Reinstating the state monopoly on the legitimate use of force continues to be the key strategy used to pacify conflict zones and rebuild so-called ‘fragile states’. At the same time, the empirically measurable effects of state armed forces extending their reach throughout their country on people’s security are at best ambivalent. This project investigates the often paradoxical relationship between the processes of security production in the local security arena and inhabitants’ perceptions of their own security.
    DFG, 2020-2024

    Research Project | 21/05/2018 - 21/11/2018

    Education (In)Security in the Central African Republic

    The conflict in the Central African Republic is rooted in different populations’ unequal access to economic opportunities, public goods, and security and justice. Marginalisation of the mostly Muslim inhabitants in the country’s north-east was at the root of the onset of the civil war that started in 2012. This research project, looking at education as one important public good and studying educational success in the rebel-held town of Ndélé, analyses how inequality and conflict become interlinked. It contributes to and challenges assumptions of the literature on rebel governance.
    Knowledge Management Fund, 2018

    Research Project | 01/01/2014 - 31/12/2017

    Governing People's Safety in Areas of Extremely Limited Statehood: South Sudan and the Central African Republic

    Why do some areas of limited statehood produce security while others are fraught with persistent insecurity? This research project focuses on areas where state presence is limited and where other local and external non-state actors are involved in providing security to citizens. By developing a micro-perspective on local arenas of security provision in South Sudan and the Central African Republic, the project seeks to understand what explains the differences in effective security provision in areas of limited statehood.
    DFG, CRC 700, 2014-2017

    Media Contributions

    Deutschlandfunk Kultur | Interview | 28/07/2023

    Russische Machtpolitik – Zentralafrika als Musterbeispiel

    Anlässlich des Russland-Afrika-Gipfels spricht GIGA-Forscher Dr. Tim Glawion im Interview mit Deutschlandfunk Kultur über die Beziehungen zwischen Russland und Zentralafrika. 

    HR-iNFO | Interview | 27/07/2023

    "Wladimir Putin ist auf Partnersuche"

    Der russische Präsident empfängt in St. Petersburg afrikanische Präsidenten und Premierminister zum Russland-Afrika-Gipfel. Afrika-Experte Dr. Tim Galwion erklärt, welche Interessen Russland in Afrika hat und was sich afrikanische Regierungen von Putin erhoffen.

    RBB-Inforadio | Interview | 27/07/2023

    Experte zu Russland-Afrika-Gipfel: "Pakt der Eliten" geplant

    In St. Petersburg findet ein Russland-Afrika-Gipfel statt. Russland könne den afrikanischen Staaten Machterhalt anbieten - im Gegenzug zu politischen und wirtschaftlichen Zugeständnissen, sagt Dr. Tim Glawion vom GIGA Institut für Afrika-Studien.

    Lectures

    Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom | 21/03/2022

    The Most Under-Reported Humanitarian Crises in 2021 | Vol. 3 Central African Republic

    Organiser: Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Dr. Tim Glawion (Consultant)

    Dr. Tim Glawion

    Associate

    German Institute for Global and Area Studies | 13/12/2021

    GIGA Session on comparing cases through qualitative fieldwork

    Organiser: German Institute for Global and Area Studies Dr. Tim Glawion (Consultant)

    Examinations of substate politics are mostly limited to single-case studies or statistical analyses. Seldom are qualitative methods applied with a comparative aim in mind that can unveil patterns of political ordering on the local level. In this GIGA session we discuss how to gather comparable data across field sites and how to compare them analytically. The lecturer will provide examples from his comparative studies on local security arenas in the Central African Republic, Lebanon, Somaliland, South Sudan, and Haiti. Students are encouraged to share their own experiences and plans during class.

    Dr. Tim Glawion

    Associate

    Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development | 04/10/2021

    Development cooperation with the Central African Republic

    Organiser: Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development Dr. Tim Glawion (Consultant)

    Dr. Tim Glawion

    Associate

    Teaching

    Teaching | Heidelberg University | 2021

    De-Essentialising the Global South: Comparing Local Security Across Africa and Europe

    Heidelberg University Heidelberg Germany

    Students will learn to study security concepts commonly attributed to the “Global South” (fragile statehood, hybridity, civil strife) in a cross-regional comparison. Through a local security lens, students will learn how comparable human behaviour from a micro perspective is – thereby de-essentialising common ascriptions to the “Global South”. The aims of the course are threefold: understanding concepts, using qualitative methods, and comparing cases. From a conceptual standpoint we will focus on essentialisation, security arenas, hybrid orders and “fragile” statehood. Methodologically, students will get an introductory glimpse at using interviewing techniques. For the comparison we will emphasize six cases: Germany, France, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Central African Republic, Somalia/Somaliland, and South Sudan. At the end, students should be able to write an unbiased, methodologically and conceptually sound term paper on local security comparisons.

    Teaching | Berlin School of Economics and Law | 2020

    International Security Politics

    Berlin School of Economics and Law Berlin Germany

    Teaching | Heidelberg University | 2020

    Qualitative Peace and Security Studies: Concepts, Methods and Comparative Case Studies

    Heidelberg University Heidelberg Germany

    Students will learn how to compare security across cases using a qualitative methodology. Guiding questions are: What is security? Why do security levels vary across and within cases? How can we study security issues? What does security production signify for everyday life situations? To answer these questions, we will discuss concepts, such as “hybridity”, “public authority”, or the “security arena”, and qualitative approaches, such as field work, document analysis, and Comparative Area Studies. Each course combines conceptual and methodological learning with the analysis of particularly intriguing cases for security production, such as Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Colombia, but also the US and Germany. By the end of the course students should know what concepts to use, how to conduct qualitative research, and how to apply this theoretical knowledge to the everyday.

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