International Relations and European Politics is one of the three organisational clusters of the Institute of Political Science.

Are you thinking about studying International Relations: Culture and Politics? Learn more and watch the introduction video.

Are you thinking about studying Global Political Economy? Learn more and watch the introduction video.

The Institute for Philosophy at Leiden University is host to the NWO programme,

The eleven innovative essays in this volume explore the notion that all forms of modern mass politics, including liberal democracies, need such a form of sacralization of politics to function.

Political scientist Luzia Helfer (Leiden University) empirically tested claims about media-politics relatiopns using unique data from experimental studies with elected politicians and political journalists in Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Comparative and Dutch Politics is one of the three organisational clusters of the Institute of Political Science.

In this chapter of the Elgar Encyclopedia of International Relations, Carraro explores how expertise is defined and contested in International Relations.

What makes some international organisations more likely to succumb to crises where others manage to survive or even thrive? And what can international organisations do to become resilient and withstand existential challenges? Political Scientist Gisela Hirschmann (Leiden University) studied the example…

Many of the big challenges of the 21st century (climate change, international migration, financial instability, socio-economic inequality) find their origins in the organisation of the global economy. Any solution to the world’s big challenges therefore requires forceful policy interventions at the…

The Oxford Handbook of Dutch Politics provides a comprehensive longitudinal overview of the state of the art of academic research on the Dutch political system: its origins and historical development, its key institutions, main fault lines, pivotal processes, and key public policy dynamics. In each…

This handbook is aimed at a wide readership interested in developing an understanding of the political, economic, and social complexity of Eastern Europe. It covers Central Europe, the Baltic republics, South Eastern Europe, and the Western Balkans, as well as all the countries of the former Soviet…

The Leiden Political Economy Group (L-PEG) is a multi-disciplinary network of scholars with a research interest in (comparative / global) political economy based at Leiden University. Our members belong to various institutes and faculties across Leiden University, and from other universities across…

Political scientist Matthew Longo (Leiden University) takes a detailed look at the evolution of border security in the United States after 9/11. Far from the walls and fences that dominate the news, he reveals borders to be thick, multi-faceted and binational institutions that have evolved greatly in…

The Team International Relations and European Studies addresses the interconnections and interdependence of contemporary global political, economic, security and culture from a multidisciplinary perspective rooted in the humanities. More specifically it is concerned with the study of international relations…

The Leiden Lectures in Media | Art | Politics (MAP) is a series of talks organized by Pepita Hesselberth and Yasco Horsman. Speakers from various academic backgrounds and in different stages of their careers reflect on diverging ways in which technological and social changes challenge and transform…

Research Network Institute for History 2026-2029

Research Network Institute for History 2026-2029

Never has good policy been so important. From unemployment and a lack of affordable housing to regulating cryptocurrencies and protecting against cybersecurity threats, the challenges we face are complex and global. The text explains how policymaking works: from the emergence of policy ideas to deciding…

Political scientist Maurits de Jongh (Leiden University/Sciences Po) argues that political liberalism is self-defeating as a framework of justification for liberal conceptions of justice. He explores how the framework's self-imposed criterion of acceptability in the eyes of all reasonable citizens leads…

Why obey the state? Dorota Mokrosińska presents a fresh analysis of the most influential theories of political obligation and develops a novel approach to this foundational problem of political philosophy, an intriguing combination of the elements of natural duty and associative theories.

How did parties as political organizations emerge?

This dissertation offers a reconstruction of the propositional contents of the writings of Karl Popper, Leo Strauss, and Hannah Arendt while bringing these into discussion with their performative meanings, such as polemical forms of reasoning, analogical and metaphorical uses of language, and hidden…

The Institute of Political Science is a vibrant department with nearly 70 academic staff in Leiden and nearby The Hague.

Under what circumstances do paramilitary groups limit their use of political violence? This article examines the use of political violence by the PIRA.

Politics is about the authorised allocation of values: who gets what, when and how much? This question is relevant at many different levels, in many different places and in very different ways.

In what ways do historical and current events affect how we should judge the legitimacy of political authorities?

Profile Area Political Legitimacy, Leiden University

Are you thinking about studying Political Science? Watch the introduction video’s and learn more!

At the Institute of Political Science we value our alumni. We can learn from you, and would like to contribute to your further development. And, of course, we want to lend a hand in connecting ‘our’ political scientists all over the world.

This volume challenges the idea that the development of ‘democracy’ is a story of rise and progress at all. It is rather a story of continuous but never completely satisfying attempts of interpreting the rule of the people.

Hegemony and World Order explores a key question for our tumultuous times of multiple global crises.