Disinformation has become a popular subject of study and debate. A plethora of publications and policies have emerged, aiming to analyse and curb the negative consequences of unwanted communication.

The recent reciprocal expulsions of ambassadors between Spain and Nicaragua are not merely political gestures but legally structured acts grounded in the framework of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) (VCDR). The episode illustrates how the persona non grata mechanism - a classical…

How do protein modifications work together to repair DNA, and what can we learn about these interactions to better understand disease?

Pursuing Whiteness in the Colonies offers a new comprehension of colonial history from below by taking remnants of individual agencies from a whiteness studies perspective. It highlights the experiences and perceptions of colonisers and how they portrayed and re-interpreted their identities in Afric…

This series provides a venue for scholarly work—research monographs and edited volumes—that advances our understanding of the history of slavery and post-slavery in any period and any geographical region. It fills an important gap in academic publishing and builds upon two relatively recent developments…

Christian Lequesne introduces the upcoming special issue on Ministries of Foreign Affairs in this blog post.

Heritage protection is increasingly understood by nations and other actors as playing a critical intersectoral role in supporting wider development and diplomacy outcomes through soft power and cultural relations.

Author: Andrew F. Cooper

All countries have turned into a global no-go zone and in the Covid-19 crisis flying citizens back home is an unprecedented logistical operation. More hidden from view is that helping people is one thing, but getting through to an elusive public with the objective of inducing behavioural change, is…

To stay secure, the transatlantic community must take on emerging and disruptive technologies together.

The European Union has awarded a COFUND grant to a consortium of researchers from the universities of Groningen, Leiden and Eindhoven for a collective fellowship programme called ‘oLife’. The 6 M€ programme, which is co-financed by the participating universities, will recruit and train 18 post-doctoral…

After the lockdown, it was again possible to receive graduates and guests at the University. In recent weeks, BSc and MSc graduates from various study programmes were festively awarded their diplomas in a special corona-proof setting in the restaurant of the Gorlaeus Lecture Halls building. This resulted…

On Thursday 14 March, the third ILS Lunch Seminar of this year took place. In this well visited seminar, Nienke van Heek and Esther van Ginneken gave two very insightful presentations on their respective research topics.

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is one of the three priority areas of Leiden University, which was established by its Executive Board in 2014. The objective is to set up a comprehensive strategy.

Science diplomacy, broadly defined as all activities at the intersection of science and foreign policy, has become a buzzword during the past ten years.

The postwar Liberal International Order faces grave challenges today mostly in the form of geopolitical competitions among great powers and exclusionary identity politics unfolding across different countries.

On Friday, April 5, the Ecuadorian police stormed the Mexican Embassy in Quito to arrest former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas Espinel.

Gendered dynamics and assumptions are prevalent throughout the field of cybersecurity.

When former Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström announced in 2014 that Sweden would become the first state to implement a feminist approach to its foreign policy, her idea was met with giggles. [1] But the concept quickly spread around the world. In May 2022, the Netherlands became the 10th state…

Over the past year and a half, China’s diplomacy has attracted attention from media institutions, policy makers and scholars around the globe.

Markus Kornprobst writes about managing international crises.

In the past months the COVID-19 pandemic has made the world become more reliant on digital communication and social media. As virtual spectators of diplomacy during these times, it is not difficult to notice that diplomacy is more colourful nowadays.

Faced with warfare on the European continent and growing Sino-American geopolitical disputes, the EU’s rising use of sanctions and attention to economic security call for a better diplomatic understanding of how state-market actor-networks are assets of modern foreign and security policy.

It is undeniable that the public is central to the practice and study of public diplomacy. Indeed, this field is known as *public* diplomacy.

Mechanical metamaterials are man-made materials which derive their unusual properties from their structure rather than their composition.

While the U.S. reconsiders its global commitments, Japan remains a stable partner, having cultivated the roots of its bilateral partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region and expanded its commitment to global health.

Exam, paper, exam, paper. A familiar, though sometimes little unexciting, routine for students. That is why Film and Literary students Sietske de Haan and Wouter Dijkman decided to write a blog post for the course Interculturality. Their impressive achievement was rewarded with a publication on science…

The studies presented in the work show the potential of the integrative use of biophysical data in defining the structural basis of protein interactions.

How is the instructional practice of teachers connected to the mastery of reading skills of students in kindergarten (group 2) to the third grade (group 5) of primary education in Curaçao?

Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs) have increasingly addressed gender equality and diversity, often through measures that are to level the playing field for marginalised groups. Despite decades of reform, MFAs are slow to change. One reason for institutional inertia is diplomats’ gendered, racialised,…

For the first time ever, Leiden biologists have found that the ‘nose’ of spirochetes – worm-shaped bacteria – have a two-fold symmetry. A remarkable discovery, as the ‘nose’ of every other bacterium has been found to have a six-fold symmetry. First author Alise Muok wrote a popular blog about the findings…

Maria Yazdanbakhsh, Professor of Parasitology at the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant of 2.5 million euros. She will investigate why people in Africa and Southeast Asia respond less to certain vaccines than Europeans. Her goal is to find a solution for…

Alastair Reed, Assistant professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) is interviewed by Devex, the media platform for the global development community.

Three MA students of the Institute of Immigration Law, Nick Perre, Myrthe De Vries and Hannah Richards have co-authored together with Mariana Gkliati, a blog deconstructing the notion of the ‘refugee crisis’ and connecting it with observations from a wider spectrum of socio-economic formations, which…

Much of the literature on space diplomacy houses a Western precedent through the use of mainstream ideas of IR to emphasise space...

This project has two main aims: I. Determine when novelty promotes fear extinction. II. Discover the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these effects.

Russia’s premeditated attack on Ukraine in February 2022 changed not only the security landscape of Europe. It also altered – at least for now – the structures of leadership and influence within the West.

The rapid expansion of research on human gut microbiome in recent decades has highlighted its role in human metabolism, immune regulation, and behavior.

Internal networking event

Recently, the so-called refugee crisis has been framed as a threat for well-developed welfare states in Europe by the president of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem. According to him, external borders have to be guarded, because otherwise ‘loads of people will come to demand support and they blow up…

The project Going Dutch investigates why the link between being or becoming Dutch, and knowledge of Standard Dutch is so often taken for granted in public discourse, by diving into its historical roots.