I am an Associate Professor in International Relations. My research explores patterns of conflict and cooperation in different world regions. Global politics is changing, and many different political actors want a seat at the table: established and emerging, powerful and poor, national, regional and global. My work asks whether they can come together to address transboundary problems. What different ideas and approaches do they bring to the table? How do they navigate their differences? I explore these questions with a focus on Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia.
RESEARCH PROJECTS
Populism in world politics
Populists have risen to power in many states around the world. Many observers fear that this trend could lead to a breakdown in international collaboration on pressing global issues like pandemic management, climate change etc. My research investigates the foreign policies of populist state leaders, asking under what conditions they are willing to engage in multilateral institutions and how this affects the future of international order.
Regional cooperation and the transformation of national sovereignty
Academics and politicians often promote regional cooperation as a way for states to address important development challenges. However, the willingness of governments to cooperate varies greatly across different policy fields. The TRANSFORM project seeks to understand these divergences by studying how state elites connect ideas about national sovereignty to initiatives for regional cooperation on communicable diseases, natural disasters and transboundary river resources.
Global-regional security cooperation
International security governance is increasingly shaped by complex cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations. However, global and regional actors may have very different ideas about what constitutes appropriate approaches to peacekeeping, humanitarian aid and other security issues. The project analyzes and compares UN security cooperation with different regional actors, focusing on the sources and consequences of different legitimacy understandings at the intersection of global and regional governance.
