PhD Project

New Middle Eastern Regionalism: Arab-Israeli Normalisation and Shifting Paradigms of a Region Michael Nuding The norms that have historically shaped regionalism in the Middle East are currently undergoing a profound transformation. The ongoing Arab-Israeli normalization initiatives exemplify a not...

Saudi go home! - Saudi Arabian interventions in the Yemeni Civil War and implications for a peace process Jan Mewes Despite having lost some of its intensity, the ongoing civil war in Yemen still is a major military conflict and a grave humanitarian crisis. Causes and possible resolution appear as...

Legitimation Strategies of Turkish and Tunisian Political Parties from 2001-2020 Jonas Knoblach Over the past two decades, Turkey and Tunisia have been seen as potential role models for the democratisation process in the MENA-region. Due to the authoritarian drift under Erdoğan and Saied, this ass...

Sentimentality and State-Society Relations: The Consolidation of Collective Identities in Gulf Monarchies Antonia Thies Antonia's research project examines the forms and functions of sentimentality in the consolidation of collective identities using the example of selected Gulf monarchies (Saudi A...

The Guardians of the Twitterverse. Narratives of Climate Change in the Saudi Twittersphere Laura Schuhn Saudi Arabia is currently experiencing multiple processes of transformation, with comprehensive and ambitious programs aiming to diversify its economy, promising greater transparency and accoun...

'Us against Them' in the Name of the French Nation: Discursive Practices of Affective Polarization during the 2017 and 2022 Election Campaigns and the Temptation of Sentimentality as a Challenge to Liberal Democracy Andrea Klinger Against the backdrop of an ongoing third wave of autocratization u...