New insights for policy promoting peace and security in Europe and the world.

This paper series is the result of two rounds of PhD workshops organized by the editors at the TMC Asser Institute and Leiden University in 2024 on ‘The legal implications of the EU’s geopolitical awakening’, with the generous financial assistance of the Municipality of The Hague.

In this article, Joris Larik and Richard Ponzio grasp the importance of the Summit of the Future to overhaul and strengthen multilateral cooperation in an age of deepening rifts and increasing competition between the great powers. This article argues that a failure to convene a meaningful and ambitious…

In this article, the authors analyse two major factors that deepen informality, namely multipolar geopolitics and the rise of non-state actors.

Geopolitical events affect Europe un a myriad of ways far beyond trade and defence. They also impact areas such as the environment, migration, technology, EU enlargement, multilateralism, and the rules-based international order more generally. Three GTGC researchers participated in a panel discussion…

Amidst concerns over what the re-election of Donald Trump will mean for the international system, Prof. Dr. Jan Aart Scholte gave a Cleveringa Lecture titled ‘Trump, geopolitics and the future of globalization’ on 28 November 2024.

Amidst concerns over what the re-election of Donald Trump will mean for the international system, Prof. Dr. Jan Aart Scholte will give a Cleveringa Lecture titled ‘Trump, geopolitics and the future of globalization’ on 28 November 2024.

Donald Trump was sworn into his second period as President of the United States on 20 January 2025. Since then, the Trump administration has raised alarms for people around the world who are concerned over what this will mean for the current geopolitical landscape. Join a panel of experts to discuss…

On 7 October, the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics was launched on the margins of an informal EU leaders’ summit in Prague. The initiative will provide a hub for high-quality research on Europe’s geopolitics, thus enabling the European Union to develop its strategic capacities.

2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the first United Nations World Conference on Women (Mexico City, 1975), a process that led to the creation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995). The Global Transformations and Governance Challenges Programme organised a roundtable to reflect on…

The dramatic geopolitical changes of the last few years and other crises have led the EU to reconsider the function and role of its internal market. Increased focus is now placed on ensuring the future competitiveness, economic security and resilience of Europe.

Luuk van Middelaar, Professor of Foundations and Practice of the European Union and its Institutions, recently wrote an op-ed in Dutch daily newspaper NRC.

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.”

In this research I assess the impact of the recently discovered gas reserves south off Cyprus on the escalation of the Cyprus conflict.

Located at Leiden University's Campus The Hague, GTGC lies at the heart of one of the world's main hubs of global governance. The programme maintains active contact with many key policy stakeholders. Below is more information about our links to Global The Hague.

Following Trump’s resounding victory over his Republican arch-rival in Iowa, it's clear that standing by passively and giving Biden the benefit of the doubt is not an option. Luuk van Middelaar, Professor of Foundations and Practice of the European Union and its Institutions, warns in his column in…

The purpose of the initiative is to establish Central Asian Studies at Leiden University. Central Asia is a region with fluid borders stretching into present-day Afghanistan, Russia, China, Mongolia, Iran and the Caucasus; a premodern highway of global interaction and today increasingly important as…

This programme examines cultural space, national identity and the politics of tangible and intangible heritage in Islamic Central Asia.

The Issues beneath the Surface

Vice-President Vance uitte bij zijn recente bezoek aan Groenland kritiek op Denemarken. Trump had eerder al afstand genomen van Europa. Luuk van Middelaar, hoogleraar Grondvesten van de Europese Unie, en oprichter van het Brussels Instituut voor geopolitiek, deed een analyse over de situatie in Nieu…

The Central Asia Initiative is funded by the Leiden research profile area Asian Modernities and Traditions with the purpose to establish Central Asian Studies at Leiden University.

At CWTS, we organize public research seminars, usually on Friday afternoons. These, but also other upcoming events such as PhD defences and workshops, are listed on the right margin.

This volume is pubished in the IMISCOE-AUP Series and edited by Marlou Schrover and Deirdre M. Moloney.

Yuxi Nie defended her thesis on 15 October 2019.

The corona crisis is also a disinformation crisis for the global community in general, and for the European Union (EU) in particular. What is less clear is how adequate the EU’s response to the ‘infodemic’ has been. This essay exposes the dangers of disinformation for the EU, which have intensified…

Assistant professor Vincent Chang spoke in various media outlets about the Chinese commemoration of World War II.

The International Relations and Diplomacy programme gives you a unique combination: a thorough academic education in international relations and political science with practice-based training in international negotiation and diplomacy.

Understanding the evolving landscape of extremism in the 21st century.

Research on this theme addresses the systemic risks faced by European societies and affecting the quality of life of European citizens.

Leiden University is an international, broad-based university. We distinguish five core domains for our research and teaching activities.

This paper, like the seminar on which it is based, considers how the governance of transnational critical information infrastructure (CII) could be approached at the global level. It suggests that when one is thinking about the (potential) governance of CII, it is important to recognise that not all…

This dissertation studies the formation of the wage laboring class in the Iranian oil industry during the first decades of the 20th century.

The Global Transformations and Governance Challenges Programme hosts a range of international academic gatherings.

Caribbean archaeological heritage is threatened by natural impacts but also increasingly by economic developments, often resulting from the tourist industry. The continuous construction of specific projects for tourists, accompanied by illegal practices such as looting and sand mining, have major impacts…

This edited volume explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming international conflict in cyberspace.

The figure of the barbarian has captivated the Western imagination from Greek antiquity to the present. Since the 1990s, the rhetoric of civilization versus barbarism has taken center stage in Western political rhetoric and the media. But how can the longevity and popularity of this opposition be accounted…

The Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) is a research institute at Leiden University working on improving how science is practiced and governed and how it serves society.

LENS is engaged in the drawing up a cartography of the mediascape, past and present, researching the dispositifs and ecologies of image production and presentation, which stretch across diverse geo-political areas as well as institutional, discursive and technological fields.

Eva Michaels & Monika Sus examines European Strategic Autonomy (ESA) as the EU’s response to the fragmentation of the Liberal International Order.

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…

Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) at Leiden University aims to advance knowledge and practice on how we govern – and could govern – major world-scale changes in contemporary society. These global transformations include hegemonic and other geopolitical shifts, ecological changes,…

In this book, Vanessa Newby provides the first detailed examination of credibility’s essential place in peacekeeping.

This book argues that Dutch Brazil (1624–54) is an integral part of Atlantic history and that it made an impact well beyond colonial and national narratives in the Netherlands and Brazil.