The DVPW (German association for political science) meeting of the section on comparative politics (twitter #DVPWGIGA) was held in my hometown Hamburg at the GIGA (German institute for Global Area Studies) in February 2015. Once again (after the IDCAR confernce in december '14) a pleasent reason for me to return to my hometown for professional reasons.

In general the conference had attracted more than 220 researchers from all over Europe. This alone can probably already be judged quite a success. The wide -range of panel themes to some extend resembled the diversity of topics within the subfield of comparative politics (find the program of the conference with all paper titles & authors here). However there was some clear centres of gravity that could be identified. 

Overall there were four panels with a total of 28 papers dealing with authoritarian regimes. A clear sign that the trend towards political science research on non-democratic contexts is still ongoing. Other main themes at the conference were political behavoir and attitutes, regionalism and regional institutions as well as democratization and transitology.  I participated in the conference with two papers in two different panels both dealing with non-democratic regimes.

The first panel was entitled: "Legitimation, policy instruments and policy performance in autocracies" and organized by Steffen Kailitz (Hannah-Arendt-Institute Dresden) and Stefan Wurster (University of Heidelberg). Most of the contributions in this panel aimed at improving our conceptual understanding of legitimacy and legitimation processes under non-democratic circumstances and to increase our ability to operationalize and measure different types and mechanisms of legitimacy. I presented a paper dealing with legitimation strategies via the institutional reform process initiated by the Morrocan regime in the aftermath of the 2011 demonstrations (working paper paper can be found here).

The second panel was organnized by the IDCAR initiators Christian von Soest and Thomas Richter (both GIGA). Accordingly the panel was named: "Democracy Prevention by International Means: Diffusion and Cooperation of Authoritarian Regimes". In this rich panel with contributions on the post soviet space, the Gulf countries, Sub-Sahara Africa and the Middle East by scholars from all career stages I presented a draft outline on my conceptual dissertation chapter entitled: "The Influence of Authoritarian Learning on Regime Survival in times of Contentious Politics" (the working paper can be found here).

A few days ago the online debate magazine "the European" published the introductory piece to my column entitled: "Tales of Arabian Nights and Days" in which I will write regularly about politics and societies in the Middle-East. Featuring stories from the region and comments on current political developments in the post-Arab-Spring context. The upcoming contributions will look closer at specific developments and countries in the region.

I am looking forward to be part of this debate focussed enedvaour and to be able to publish regularly in english on societal and political events and developmennts from the Arabian context. I really hope to add some new perspectives and shades of grey to the oftentimes sensation-driven and superficial black and white explanations and analysis in the debates on the developments in the region.

Here is the link to the introductory piece: "Picking up the pieces. What is the legacy of the Arab Spring?" which to some extend lays the ground for the contributions to come. The column thus starts out asking the question: What is left of the so-called Arab Spring?

I hope you have fun reading it and as always comments and critique are always welcome!

Just before the holidays I was participating at a confernce in my hometown Hamburg. The IDCAR Network kick-off Conference in Hamburg at the German Institute for Global Area Studies (GIGA). The Acronym IDCAR stands for International Diffusion and Cooperation of Authoritarian Regimes. The Network which is sponsored by the Leibniz foundation aims to bring together scholars working on relevant issues with different regional, theoretical and methodological backgrounds in order to foster and institutionalize exchange between them. It wants to lay the ground for further more specific research projects and collaboration between the participants. The participation in the conference was partly coming home to my alma mater as the GIGA is also cooperating with the University of Hamburg, from where I received my undegraduate degree. As an undergaduate student I oftentimes visited the GIGA to work in the library or listen to talks and debates just as the one that started of the IDCAR conference on the first evening. Being back a few years later as a participant was a very nice possibility to meet people that have already known during my studies in Hamburg.

Although the first conference (as Christoph Stefes rightly pointed out during the conference) was dominated by comparativists from political science field the network aims to bring together scholars from International Relations, Area Studies and Comparative Politics to discuss a common research agenda.

Amidst the grey in grey and rainy weather in my hometown Hamburg the conference was overall in high spirits and most of the participants seemed to be looking forward to further exchange of the network. It was interesting to hear that other scholars working on similar topics also encountered similar problems of operationalization and empirical assessment of diffusion and cooperation processes between authoritarian regimes. I am convinced that a continuation of exchange and discussions within the network will lead to progress that benefits all participants and hopefully leads to new insides and a more comprehensive understanding of diffusion and cooperation processes amongst authoritarian regimes.

The list of the participating scholars was impressive and the paper presentations and discussions were very interesting and inspiring. Especially because the international dimension of authoritarian rule has thus far received little attention by the scholarly community. For me as a PhD student working on authoritarian learning during the Arab Uprisings the IDCAR network provides a unique opportunity to discuss current research projects related to the topic and meet distinguished scholars working on similar issues. I am happy to participate in the network for the WZB (Social Science Center Berlin) with my supervisor and looking forward to future workshops and conferences.

This is the fourth and the last post on my semester at the EUI which has now unfortunately come to an end.

All in all the four month I spend in Fiesole at this truly inspiring and unique place have been an amazing experience professionally and personally. 

Professionally, the exchange at the EUI with various communities of researchers has helped me a lot to narrow and cut down my research into more doable pieces. The comments I received in different contexts and formats at the EUI have been very valuable. More than that, the place and the people inspired me to follow up on new projects and establishn new collaborations.

I tried to make use of the fact that in terms of my research topics there was not really a clear affiliation to one research group through engaging with various research groups and disciplines at the EUI. During my last weeks I presented my research in the COSMOS group on social movements, in the International Relations working group, the Middle Eastern working group and the Europe in the World seminar series at the Robert Schumann Center. Engaging with researchers stemming from different dsciplinary backgrounds that confront my work from different angles was a truly unique and inspiring experience for me. To some degree the commonalities of the comments have led to major reformulations and a more specific focus of my disseration project on authoritarian learning processes. With regards to the two papers I presented in the working groups, the discussions really helped me to see the weaknesses and the blind spots and was hence very helpful.

Personally, during my time at the EUI I have gotten to know so many lovely people that leaving now feels actually kind of wrong. The christmas festivities during the last week with the EUIs christmas party and the many dinners with groups of friends towards the end of the semester did not contribute to make leaving this place any easier either. However of course no goodbye is everlasting. As I have been ‘recruited’ to play in the EUIs yearly football tournament in June –the famous Copa Pavone– I will return for that occasion and hope to see many familiar faces around.

Surely the picture perfect sunsets, the city that is basically an open air museum and the sorrounding green hills of tuscany have also made the last few months an amazing experience. No doubt I will miss the dolce vita and the italian lifestyle with the passion for good food, coffee and wine.

In the last week of October I went to Tunis in order to experience the second elections after the ousting of the dictator Ben-Ali in 2011. The most important thing first: According to international and domestic observers the parliamentary elections met domestic and international standards and can be considered free, fair and meaningfully democratic. 

During my days in Tunis I spoke to different stakeholders and observers in Tunis from civil society activists to diplomats and election observers. Despite the different perspectives their take on the elections was mainly positive, not least due to the fact that the electoral process went so smoothly and the much feared political violence or contestation of the results did not occur.

However turing away from the elections itself to the broader developments in Tunisia since the fall of Ben-Ali the views widely varied with regards to the evaluation of hitherto accomplishments and future propects of the transition process. Whereas some actors I talked to highlighted the inclusive and consesus-seeking nature of the process and mentioned the crucial role of civil society, others critically noted the polarization of political discourse, the predominance of backdoor politics and the return of ancient regime personel on the political stage.

In the running up towards the elections I have written two pieces trying to analyze the unique tunisian trajectories during the last four years. The first one for the Blog Al-Qantara has been dedicated to analyze the process up until the elections and sketch out some of the problematic areas that still remained untouched. A second, more policy oriented piece for the political IPG journal -run by the Friedrich Ebert foundation- has focussed on the challenges ahead for any new tunisian government in place and identified how Europe may help Tunisia in its transition and contribute to consolidate democracy in Tunisia.

• Der Tunesische Sonderweg – Oped on IPG Internationale politik und Gesellschaft (October 2014) available online (german only)

• The model student faces difficult tasks – Oped on Al Qantara (October 2014) available online (in german, english and arabic)

Unfortunately the first piece is only vailable in german. The Second one has been translated into english and arabic. However I have decided to shift away from publishing non-academic opeds and blog contributions exclusively within the german media outleds. Consequently on the bucket-list for next year are contributions in english newspapers or blogs.

In the beginning of November I was very happy to be invited to present my thoughts on the Moroccan political system at the workshop "What Makes New Forms of Authoritarianism so Attractive? - Rethinking the Shades between Authoritarian and Democratic Rule" in Berlin organized by the Center for Advanced Studies South East Europe (CAS), my home institution the Social Science Center Berlin (WZB) with support of the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin - Center for Advanced Studies Berlin (WiKo).

Here the official abstract by the organizers:
The famous slogan “the end of history” proved to be a historical misjudgment. Instead of linear progress towards liberal democracies we are confronted with new setbacks of democratization, emergence of grey-zone regimes between democracy and authoritarianism and new and supposedly attractive forms of authoritarianism. Classical authoritarianism seeks for absolute obedience, is directed against individual freedom and liberties and is always ready to use hard repression against opponents. New authoritarian or grey-zone regimes are chameleon-like – they are able to adjust to new circumstances, they have institutionalized representation of a variety of agents and they even incorporate some democratic procedures like elections and thus create a structure resistant to change. Moreover, they rely mostly only on soft repression and seem to enjoy the support of considerable parts of the people. In Eastern and South Eastern Europe, in the Caucasus, in Asia we are witnessing new semi-democratic or electoral authoritarian regimes, which – under the guise of formal democratic procedures – limit individual freedom and reduce liberties. New forms of authoritarian rule seem to be attractive, flexible and adaptable, and functional alternatives to the regime in some regions such as Asia, Eastern Europe and the Caucasian rim. Regimes able to reconcile competitive elections, multi-party systems, parliaments, constitutions and other elements of rule usually associated with liberal democracies on the one hand side with the functional logic of authoritarianism on the other. They pose new questions and call for deeper rethinking of concepts of authoritarianism and hybrid regimes. 
The guiding questions are: Why are they resilient, endurable, and why do they enjoy a considerable consent of the people?

The Workshop
The workshop was split between conceptual and case-study contributions. I found the question of attractively of authoritarian types of governance an extremely interesting one. My presentation on the techniques of authoritarian governance in Morocco  was closely linked to my interest in investigating legitimacy in authoritarian contexts. More generally, I am particularly interested in legitimacy of authoritarian regimes in during episodes of contentious politics. Questions I deal with concern regime responses’ to protest that aim to bolster or re-establish the legitimacy of the regime. How can regimes successfully overcome moments of crisis and what role does the claimed and perceived legitimacy play in such episodes?

I will continue to deal with these questions, as there are plans for a follow-up workshop, which will be aimed towards as publication. Furthermore I am presenting a paper titled: "Legitimacy through Reform? Institutional Reforms in Morocco 2011 & the Procedural Legitimacy of Contested Regimes." which touches upon many points related to the workshop in Berlin.

All in all the group of scholars brought together for this workshop and the presentations and discussions were very interesting and inspiring. Especially the country studies were very interesting as we covered a wide range of countries which were presented by excellent country experts and the workshop gave an impressions of particularities and similarities between different authoritarian regimes in varying regions of the world. Concluding, I hope this workshop will be followed up upon and there will be an opportunity to present a more nuanced argument with a narrower theoretical approach and a common research question to improve the compatibility of the papers towards a joint output.

After just two months at the EUI as a visiting student I can say this place is a great environment for pursuing a PhD! (the following observations are based on my experience within the SPS department)
The international environment coupled with the beautiful location, inspiring faculty and smart peers among the PhD students is definately making the EUI a unique place on the continent. The close ties between professors and PhD students and Post-doc fellows is another great feature that I have barely experienced elsewhere to this extend.

The compulsory courses offered are quiet common for PhD graduate programms. Beyond the those a wide array of electoral courses are offered that mirror the interests and diversity of the faculty. Furthermore the many workshops and lectures with dustinguished academics from outside the EUI form a platform of constant inspiration and exchange for young researchers.

Last but not least the EUI also tries to enhance the exchange with practioneers. Although in my perception there is still room for improvement on this issue. Through inviting more practioneers as fellows from different fields -not only EU institutions- such exchange could be further enhanced. Despite all the advantages, if you do not want to stay in academia or go to EU institutions in your professional career after the PhD the possibilities to build a network or gain from exchange with others during your studies at the EUI are rather slim. In the end the EUI largely remains an ivory tower. But definately the nicest one I have seen up till now.

However, socially the EUI also is a bubble. Even more so being situated outside the city of Florence on the hills of Fiesole and in a country with a language that most people arriving here cannot speak. Although the EUI offers italian courses and does everything it can as an institution to make the affiliates learn the language, this of course just works to some extend.

The "EUI bubble" is enhanced through the wide range of possibilities of leisure activities that are organized wuthin the EUI framework (not to mention the Bar Fiasko). From a gym to a chess club a lot of activities are offered. Just that this even enhances your social live also being attached to the institute.

Also this week I was able to participate in a methods workshop on qualitative comparative case studies by Professor Claudius Waageman from the Goethe Universuty of Frankfurt. It was held at the newly established Scuola Normale Superiore (SNS), a joint venture of the University of Bologna, Pisa and Florence, which establishes an integrated graduate school for the social sciences in Florence. The rooms at Palazzo Strozzi in the heart of the cities old town are breathtaking. Participating in the course I enjoyed the possibility to exchange views with PhD students from outside the EUI world.




Just yesterday the school (SNS) was officially inaugurated with a lot of tamtam, local politicians and academic celebreties. The inaugural lecture was held by Professor Sydney Tarrow from Cornell University. Safe to say, one of the grandfathers of social movement studies. His talk on the US as an "infrastructural state", which in his view is dominated by a security paradigm that grew out of the war-torn history of the country and is hollowing out important democratic principles was critical and at the same time very interesting. Although the evidence presented was mainly anecdotical and descriptive the narrative was quite convincing.

After a warm-up phase in september, with the beginning of october the semester at the EUI finally kicked in. Which means a lot of courses and seminars start and the EUI community is returning to Florence to cramp up the hills of Fiesole to the institute. After getting settled in Florence I am spending more time up in the Villa Badia at the EUI. 

Lecture by Olivier Roy

Two weeks ago I have visited a  Robert Schumann Center lecture by Prof Olivier Roy with the bold title: "How to Think About Contemporary Middle East"

Collaborations and  Upcoming Presentations

Besides the event I am very happy that a first collaboration with a researcher from the EUI is already on the way.  Johanne Kübler is a fourth year PhD researcher working on the blogosphere and the role of the diaspora in political debates in blogs around the uprisings in Northern Africa. Together we are working on a paper project analyzing the transformation process in Tunisia four years after the ousting of Ben-Ali.

Furthermore I am collaborating with Ulrich Krotz as an associate fellow in the Europe in the World programm on matters of political prerogatives of the Arab Uprisings and its trajectories for European policy makers and the European Foreign Policy agenda.

Throughout November and December I will have the opportunity to present parts of my dissertation and a paper project here at the EUI in various working groups and colloquia. I will try to expose my self to a wide array of scholars working here in order to gain feedback, comments and critique from different fields. This is mainly driven by the fact that with my topic I am sitting a bit in between the chairs at the EUI . Thus I will have one presentation in the EU in the World programm organised by Ulrich Krotz presenting my dissertation prospectus. Similiarly I will present this prospectus in the COSMOS colloquium organized by Donatella Della Porta. Furthermore I will be presenting a current paper project in the International Relations Working Group organized by Jennifer Welsh and in the Middle Eastern Working Group headed by Olivier Roy.

Long time no post. As you can imagine there is a reason. I have been rather busy with some conferences (ECPR Graduate conference in Innsbruck), a Summerschool (Comparative Authoritarianism in Oslo), teaching (Political Theory seminar at Humboldt University) and writing a reworked and extended dissertation prospectus on my PhD including a literature review.

I hope that I can soon make up for that and deliver some posts on those events and experiences. However the main point of this post is my stay at the European University Insitute (EUI) in Fiesole (just of Florence) that has just began a week ago. 

I am staying at the EUI until mid December as a visiting scholar at the Department for Social and Political Sciences and will primarily work with Donatella Della Porta on Diffusion effects among regimes during the Arab Uprisings and Ulrich Krotz on coordinated international effects on regime (in)stability and with Olivier Roy to get some insights on elite interviews and fieldwork in the Maghreb region. All three of them are based at the Robert Schumann Center for Advanced Studies.

The first week after my arrival was much about setting my self up and getting to know the people and the possibilities the EUI has to offer. Let me assure you there are loads. However as my primary aim dunring my limited time in Italy is to proceed with my dissertation and get two current work in progress papers to the next stage I have decided not to take too many courses or the like but to rather partcipate in selected courses and workshop and use the opportunity to present some of my current work in progress in some of the working groups here over the course of my stay. 

From my first impression the EUI seems like a great place for exactly that and I have already caught myself wishing I could stay longer. But as my fieldwork is up next in the beginning of the next year I will have to return to Berlin for at least a month before leaving yet again.

I will surely post more regularly during my stay at the EUI and report form the workshops and the academic environment on the over the next months. Exiting times are also ahead as I am going to visit my first conference in the US in november at the Middle Eastern Studies Association yearly gathering in november in Washington DC and I am invitied to the opening conference of the newly founded Center for Advanced Studies South Eastern Europe (CAS) in Berlin with the title:  "What makes New Forms of Authoritarianism so Attractive? Rethinking the Shades between Authoritarian and Democratic Rule" to speak on the topic of: Morocco as a role model for constitutional monarchy for the 21st century? (big questionmark). 

I will close with some another foto from the EUI campus to give you an idea of what the charme of this truly unique institution is all about.