In Freedom on the Offensive, William Michael Schmidli illuminates how the Reagan administration's embrace of democracy promotion was a defining development in US foreign relations in the late twentieth century.

The debate in Europe about digital sovereignty, technological sovereignty, data sovereignty and strategic autonomy has been building over recent years at both the EU level and the level of individual Member States. The different concepts – and their diverse interpretations – cover the sovereignty concerns…

The complexity of an intelligence problem determines to a great extent the certainty that can be provided by intelligence and security services.

In what ways can a photographic practice act as a means to confront, or even undo, the various material properties of atmospheric enclosure that so clearly put our relationship with our environment under pressure? Is it possible to devise a set of critical and artistic strategies to comprehend the ways…

This PhD research aims to trace the impact of the Arab conquest, both immediate and long-term, on the material and social organization of Central Asia from 651 to 821 through an “urban change” perspective in four cities: Merv, Paikent, Balkh and Samarkand.

On 18 June 2019, Peter Kempees defended his thesis 'Hard power and the European Convention on Human Rights'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. R.A. Lawson and Prof. H. Duffy.

On 9 January 2019, Willem van der Muur defended his thesis 'Land rights and the forces of adat in democratizing Indonesia'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. A.W. Bedner and Prof. dr. J.M. Otto.

After the advent of Islam in the 7th century C.E., the strategic geographical position of Tarsus (its proximity to the sea and to the mountain pass leading to inland Anatolia) made this town the de facto capital of the thughur, a historical and geographical term created by Muslim geographers qualifying…

Wietse Stam is a PhD candidate at the Leiden University Institute for History. His PhD thesis is about UNTAC; a United Nations peacekeeping operation in Cambodia during the early 1990s.

Frans Osinga has recently been appointed as Professor by special appointment of War Studies at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs in the Hague. Osinga is both professor and an officer of the Dutch Royal Air Force. Given current global developments, the concept of ‘war’ is far from an abstract…

For long, the government showed little empathy for military veterans with physical or psychological scars. This is what PhD research by Theo van den Doel has revealed. The Ministry of Defence looked at each case through a legal lens. Veteran support has improved enormously since, but the policy does…

Promotie

In December 2020, the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs and Helmut Schmidt University of the German Armed Forces in Hamburg signed a cooperation agreement to cooperate in the education realm on a variety of topics related to the Civilian and Military dimensions of European and Global Security…

I am a Lecturer in Contemporary Military History and Security Studies, teaching in both the History and International Relations programmes here at Leiden. I grew up in Yorkshire, England and was interested in history and international politics from a young age. In 2003 I went to the University of Cambridge…

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A comparative study on the spatial origin and development of towns in the northern Netherlands, 700-1400.

A master's degree in Psychology at Leiden University combines theoretical knowledge with academic and professional skills, making you an attractive candidate for many employers.

How were war heroes and war criminals created, and how do these images relate to the historical context?

How did the Dutch Empire compare with other imperial enterprises? And how was it experienced by the indigenous peoples who became part of this colonial power?

The physical landscape is the setting in which human activities take place. Landscape and site context during human occupation is one of the areas of concern for the geoarchaeologist. A detailed stratigraphical study -both on- and off-site- clearly enhances the interpretation of the archaeologists,…

Research in and through art is an inseparable part of the artistic or design practice of the researcher. Consequently, research-in-art (as opposed to research-about-art, such as art history) does not have a set goal or expected result, nor are there predetermined general procedures. The outcome of the…

What made the early Islamic empire so successful and have we missed the story by neglecting crucial evidence? The 7th-century Arab conquests changed the socio-political configurations in the Mediterranean and Eurasia forever. Yet we do not really know how the Arabs managed to gain dominance of this…

Turkic nomadic rulers established large empires in the Middle East and Asia between the 11th and 14th centuries. This project will explore the link between their political ideology and the production of art and literature, via the cultural heritage of five cities along the Silk Road: Kashgar, Samarkand,…

The research addresses the question of “what is the impact of geopolitical changes to the pivot states in the Middle East? With special focus on Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.”

Women in International Security -Netherlands (WIIS-NL) is an affiliate of WIIS Global. WIIS-NL Members include: professionals, civil servants, academics, NGOs, employees of international bodies and organizations, embassy staff, politicians, students, and interested members of the general public. The…

Monica Kaminska, Dennis Broeders and Fabio Cristiano have contributed a chapter to the proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Cyber Conflict (CyCon 2021), which gathers 20 articles from the law, technology and strategy domains.

The 2012 crisis in Mali, where the state collapsed and terrorist groups took over the north, came as a surprise to many. Mali had been considered a poster-child for democracy and was judged as considerably more stable than its neighbors by leading quantitative indices of state fragility. This article…

The research group on terrorism and political violence studies the phenomena of terrorism-related and other politically motivated violence.

Are UN sanctions regimes in need of further formalization in terms of substantive design, procedural architecture and with a view to regulating and governing the interplay with other regimes?

Did the Jochids leave their mark on the Grand Duchy, taking into account that the Lithuanian state was one of the main successor states of the Great Horde in the 16thCentury?

Institutions for Conflict Resolution in Leiden focuses on how the judiciary is able to prevent and solve problems.

This advanced summer programme, organised together with the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague (ICCT), provides insight into the opportunities and challenges of various approaches to prevent, detect and respond to violent extremism.

Promotie

The decolonisation war in Indonesia was violent partly because the Dutch military operated on the conviction that ‘an uprising had to be forcibly suppressed.’ This what historian Christiaan Harinck from the KITLV discovered in his PhD research.

The war in Ukraine has lasted almost two weeks now. What does Putin expect to achieve with his invasion and how big is the chance that the West will get involved? We phoned André Gerrits, professor and expert on Russia.

On 24 November a High-Level panel discussion on the occasion of the signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding between the NATO Civil-Military Cooperation Centre of Excellence and the Institute of Security and Global Affairs and the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs took place at Campus…

Interested in an internship at the Dutch Ministry of Defence? Good news! Leiden University and the Royal Netherlands Air Force have formalized their cooperation to offer students an unique opportunity to conduct an internship at an active military base in Woensdrecht, the Netherlands.

Lukas Milevski is a lecturer in International Studies at the Institute for History. He introduces himself.

The American president Trump is considering military intervention in Mexico to get rid of the drug cartels once and for all, but Mexico is not interested in other countries' interventions. According to Jelle van Buuren, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Trump's much…

Research projects which are assisted by the NVIC in the field of Arabic studies.

This research deals with the royal houses of the Vijayanagara Empire and four of its successor states: Ikkeri, Tanjavur (under both the Nayaka and Bhonsle rulers), Madurai, and Ramnad. This study is thus concerned with dynastic politics and imperial legacies in south India between the 14th and 18th…

Governance and Global Affairs, Institute of Security and Global Affairs

War and peace studies. A topic that is more relevant than ever because of the war in Ukraine. In September, the MSc Crisis and Security Management (CSM) will start a new track: War and Peace Studies. CSM’s Programme Director, Ernst Dijxhoorn, discusses the new track, how it was created and what students…

In this unique master’s programme you will first deepen your knowledge on specific areas of the world and then learn to reflect upon this in a global context.

In the minor students will explore the relationship between geo-political shifts and power instruments in International Relations: in the political/military as well as in the financial/economic domain.

The central question is whether the current regime of international humanitarian law governing the conduct of hostilities in armed conflict is still adequate to deal with modern conflict scenarios, or whether it needs revision or amendment.

The current migration flow into Europa demands effective measures. Leiden experts examine whether these measures are legal and hold up a mirror to policy-makers.

Book project

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