Research

The goals of the CSS research group are to conduct excellent, innovative, and politically relevant academic research on contemporary security issues; to offer expertise through engagement with practitioners and the public based on this research; and to provide high-quality teaching to both academic- and practice-oriented students.

Our research is theory-driven, empirically grounded, and broad in terms of methodology. We focus on changing threats to states and their societies, and the way in which key actors organize themselves to address these threats. A sustained focus on causes and consequences of political violence, on shifts in security thinking, and on the institutions, political processes, norms, and policies to mitigate insecurity defines us. Security Studies is inherently inter- and transdisciplinary: We draw on approaches from international relations, security and strategic studies, international history, political sociology, political psychology, and criminology.

We are organized in three clusters:

Conflict Resolution and Violence Prevention

The first cluster on Conflict Resolution and Violence Prevention focuses on various forms of violence, including civil war, terrorism, non-state conflict, urban and community violence. We study why and under what conditions different conflict management tools or violence prevention strategies are effective.

Research projects

• Ceasefires and Mediation Processes
• Smart Peace Project
• Strong Communities, Weak States: Lynching in Latin America
• Keeping Many Peaces: Conflict Resolution in Local, Non-​State Based Conflicts
• Social and Political Consequences of Terrorism in Western Europe

Digital Technologies and Security Politics

The second cluster on Digital Technologies and Security Politics focuses on the use of digital technologies in security political contexts and the societal consequences arising from it. We study the interactions between actors and the formation of arrangements to govern the use of digital technologies.

Research projects

• The Threat Politics of Cybersecurity
• The Politics of Public Attribution
• Cognitive and Affective Components of Cyber Operations
• Predictive Policing
• Political Violence in Cyberspace
• Semi-​State Actors in Cyber(in-)security: a Historical Analogy with Mercantile Companies, Privateers, and Pirates
• Motivations for Participation in National Cybersecurity Organizations
• The Dynamics of Cyber Proliferation
• Cyber Power: Operational Mechanisms, Constraints & Strategic Consequences
• Digital Disinformation in World Politics
• Bias in Commercial Cyber Threat Reporting and Distorted Threat Perceptions
• Digital Technologies and the Politics of Bordering

Strategic Competition in an Age of Complexity

The third cluster on Strategic Competition in an Age of Complexity focuses on great power relations in an increasingly competitive and complex international system. We study the capacity of great powers to anticipate, understand, and respond to change in technology, economics, society, and the environment.

Research projects

• Strategic Planning in International Relations
• American Grand Strategy towards China
• Intelligence Assessments of Nuclear Programs
• Mechanisms of Nuclear Constraint
• Military-​Technological Superiority: Explaining Failure and Success in Industrial Espionage, Reverse Engineering and Imitation of Advanced Weapon Systems
• The Implications of Military-​Technological Complexity for the US-​China Military Competition
• Technological Transformations and International Security
• European Grand Strategy in an Era of Geopolitical Change
• International Security and Global International Relations: Explaining State Behaviour beyond the West
• American Grand Strategy towards China
• Scale versus Heterogeneity: Industrial Innovation Theory and the Navigation of the Armaments Cooperation Dilemma