Returning to normalcy or a scene of stability is always a political goal for the states battling the scene of continuous violent conflicts. Yet, the notion of normalcy can be a mirage or future promise when violent conflicts appear unfinished, or resolution appears permanently incomplete. This... more
The COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on migration has been substantial, with border closures leading to the panic mobility of those returning home across the globe while sending states mobilized their resources to bring the citizens abroad back. In the case of Turkey, during the initial weeks of the... more
In the past 15 years, research activities focusing on the interlinkages between climate change and human mobility have intensified. At the same time, an increasing number of actors and processes have sought to address human mobility in the context of climate change from a policy perspective.... more
Stopping ongoing wars depends on the assumed costs of the continuation of a war, assessing the balance of power, and to what extent the parties involved accept compromises and trust promises. The end of a war is influenced by ideas of the conflict’s finality. As long as a war’s outcome is... more
We analyze possible links between both trust and trustworthiness among Syrian refugees in Germany in relation to two different forms of social networking: bonding networks, which include only other Syrians, and bridging networks, which include people from the host country. Our results show that... more
Rural parts of Kenya are undergoing or are expected to undergo massive social-ecological change as a result of the government’s ambitious development agenda driven by infrastructure and extraction. The pastoralist rangelands near the dormant Mount Suswa volcano in Narok, Kajiado and Nakuru counties... more
This article examines the dynamics of interactions between civilians, armed groups, and the state in frontline states. Drawing on a 6-year ethnographic study of armed conflicts in the Lake Chad Basin region, the article argues that civilian loyalty becomes multiple and overlapping when the roles of... more
This article addresses the question of what influences the opportunities for social mobility in the context of return migration to Albania from a meso-level perspective. It applies a network-theory-based analysis to 104 qualitative interviews with a diverse sample of returned migrants, conducted in... more
This article examines multiple entanglements of Afghan exiles’ biographies in West Germany with Cold War- and contemporary history. The life stories of six men who have been residing in Germany since the 1970s but were physically and cognitively highly mobile in their engagement for change in... more
This contribution explores the potential of large-scale geothermal projects to benefit local communities, a topic about which little is known. We address this gap in the scholarly literature by focusing on Iceland and Kenya, two countries that have pioneered geothermal power generation... more
Precision-strike warfare from a distance is frequently presented as a particularly democratic way of war. Governments of democratic states avoid boots on the ground, as they fear not getting re-elected should a war result in many casualties and high economic costs. From the perspective of ‘liquid... more
The debate on urban commons yields relevance for shared histories and heritage in divided and post-conflict societies. Albeit memory is always subjective, heritage management tends to engender a linear view of the past that suggests a preconceived future development. Where the past is... more
Olive orchard intensification has transformed an originally drought-resilient tree crop into a competing water user in semi-arid regions. In our study, we used remote sensing to evaluate whether intensive olive plantations have increased between 2010 and 2020, contributing to the current risk of... more
Which conditions affect whether a state will choose to repatriate forcibly displaced populations residing within its borders? One of the most pressing issues related to the protracted Syrian refugee situation concerns the future of over 5 million Syrians who sought shelter in neighboring states.... more
The article deals with the social background and the life worlds of the followers of the Taliban movement. It begins with an analysis of the essential social structures of Pashtun tribal society. It argues that both the Afghan wars, which are ongoing since 1979, and the consequent mass exodus had a... more
This article deals with the social background and the life worlds of the followers of the Taliban movement. It begins with an analysis of the essential social structures of Pashtun tribal society. It argues that both the Afghan wars, which are ongoing since 1979, and the consequent mass... more
The four terms of Chancellor Angela Merkel (2005–2021) are in the tradition of German policy toward Russia. The policy of partnership had been justified during Russia’s open-ended transformation in the 1990s. It lost its basis with the regime that Putin represented. A change in German policy... more
In the aftermath of the Arab upheavals, Turkey pursued an overambitious regional leadership agenda that appeared incompatible with its underlying capabilities. In retrospect, there was sufficient evidence in the wake of the Arab upheavals that Turkey’s power capacity did not match the assertive... more
The importance of irregular military companies in Russia’s policy to extend its influence has increased since the annexation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine in 2014-2015. Russia’s military companies are an expression of how business and siloviki have merged to form so-called “siloarchs”. They... more
The strict encampment policy enforced by Tanzanian authorities in the last years made it harder for displaced persons to settle outside camps. The article showcases possible impacts of policy changes on the legal, social and economic position of once relatively well-integrated urban refugees. Many... more
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Water scarcity in Narok county, Kenya may be attributed to demographic pressures, land-use changes, environmental degradation and the effects of climate change. This article combines methodologies from history and political science to investigate how local communities cope with water scarcity. In... more
Different types of low-scale mobility have traditionally aided Afghans in Pakistan to cope with the challenges of everyday life during forty years of displacement: cross-border and domestic movement, resource usage from assets ‘back home’, transnational networks, and circular migration conditioned... more
Refugees rarely flee in isolation. Instead, their everyday lives and mobilities are fundamentally shaped by the broader set of social relations in which they are embedded, particularly by their families. Drawing on interviews with sixty displaced people living in Germany and in-depth case studies... more
Conventional understandings of protracted displacement are limited by a number of shortcomings. They imply the stasis of protracted situations; the passivity and disconnection of vulnerable groups who need external support; and immobility of people ‘stuck’ in places. Moreover, solutions to... more
Eritreans have experienced protracted conflict and displacement over the last half a century. Aside from marginalisation, immobilisation, highly constrained livelihood options and legal limbo, this has also created a complex and dynamic web of transnational networks of Eritrean refugees and... more
Research on political clientelism has provided conflicting findings on citizen perceptions and evaluations of clientelism. Survey as well as ethnographic research sometimes finds that citizens reject clientelism and politicians making clientelistic offers and at other times that citizens find... more
By focusing on the two Assads’ periods (1971-2011), this study traces the evolution of the nature of the relationship between the state and its citizen(s) in Syria to explain the sources and complex dynamics of the protracted conflict. It aims to promote new approaches to peace and reconstruction... more
On their journeys to and through Europe, refugees and other migrants are commonly subjected to violence in its multifaceted forms. We argue that these “journeys of violence” are a direct effect of a fundamentally uneven and asymmetric global mobility regime that creates frictions and fragmentations... more
Despite growing interest in the return of rejected asylum seekers, irregular migrants, and refugees, we do not know enough about how geopolitics affects returns governance. This article addresses this knowledge gap by analysing the case of Turkey, exploring how positions in the global migration... more
The increasing salience and variations of “voluntary” return techniques have not yet been thoroughly investigated in the context of Global South countries, which host the majority of displaced people. As the largest refugee host and transit country, the case of Turkey provides important insights on... more
The paper examines the changes of gender relations and power inequalities in a context of nearly forty years intermittent war. It shows that gender roles have been both changing and consolidating during the conflict. Furthermore, analysis reveals a multipolar instead of a bipolar local... more
The European arms export control system is facing a dual crisis: An ongoing crisis of effectiveness has led to a crisis of legitimacy. In many ways, that crisis is a permanent one, where collective efforts to regulate a policy field and implement agreed-upon norms and rules... more
Many of today's food crises are linked to war and violent conflicts. This paper elaborates four logics of war that have an impact on food insecurity: a) destruction; b) conflict-induced displacement; c) food control; d) hunger as a “weapon of war”. These logics explain why governments or... more
This paper explores the range of experiences of “voluntary” return to Ghana, based on the different positionalities of migrants set against migration and return regimes and broader socio-economic inequalities. The cases illustrate how geopolitical relations shape migrants’ mobilities,... more
Afghans’ protracted displacement is a geopolitical legacy from the Cold War. Although Pakistan’s return policymaking has foreseen the complete voluntary return of Afghans since the end of the Cold War, then as now, about three million Afghans reside in Pakistan. This article advances the notion of... more
This paper takes stock of the emerging literature on the governance and framing of both migration and asylum as ‘crises’. This study carries forward this line of thinking by showing how the crisis governance of migration is not just a representation or a discourse but emerges as a mode of... more
Do Syrian civil war victims living in exile treat other Syrian refugees more favorably compared to members of the hosting society? We answer this question by analyzing cooperation decisions in a prisoner’s dilemma with a second stage including punishment among Syrian refugees, Germans, and... more
In this article, I will unpack nine popular narratives that the media and policy think tanks have conveyed to international public and policymakers about the Afghan Taliban and critically discuss their adequacy. By analysing available scholarly resources on the Taliban movement and members’... more
This work analyses the politics of anticipation and ensuing fears, tensions and conflicts in relation to Kenya’s Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor which is to pass through several previously marginalized counties in the north of the country. Isiolo county, in the centre... more
Community-based Conservation seeks to strike a balance between nature conservation and economic growth by establishing spatial and institutional settings that maintain and even regain biodiversity while simultaneously allowing for sustainable land use. The implementation of community-based... more
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Dealing with stockpiles of surplus ammunition remains a key challenge for many African countries. In the last 10 years, at least 38 ammunition sites across Africa reportedly experienced unplanned explosions, causing injury and loss of life as well as significant damage to infrastructure and the... more
Please find the article here. The article traces the everyday securityscapes of marginalized groups in Kyrgyzstan. It finds that they are as much about the crossing as the drawing of boundaries. To seek security is to become invisible, deceive, withdraw, seize momentary opportunities and... more
Please find the article here. The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) sets, for the first time ever, legally binding, international rules for arms transfers. However, due to several problems, in particular the lack of clarity of some of its central concepts, the ATT is far from a significant contribution to... more
Preventive arms control, narrowly defined, is about restrictions on weapons development. From this traditional understanding follows that cyber warfare will be hard, if not impossible, to regulate. In this article, we start from a less circumscribed definition of preventive arms control that would... more
Programmes of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) are increasingly implemented in contexts of violent extremist conflict. In such settings, DDR practitioners may need to distinguish between ex-combatants who can be safely reintegrated into civilian life, and ex-combatants who are... more
Imaginations of existential threat do not only express themselves in exceptional actions – as prominently suggested by securitization theory – but also in routine, day-to-day practices. They can become a part of ‘normal’ life. We demonstrate this by following the everyday activities of individuals... more
This article investigates the link between the organizational structure of nonstate armed groups and the ability of low-level combatants to desert without recapture. Throughout, I show that nonstate armed groups can adopt organizational structures that mimic those found in national armies and that... more
Physical security and stockpile management (PSSM) can be broadly defined as a series of activities that make national stockpiles of weapons and ammunition safe and secure. Over the last decade, PSSM has become a highly requested form of intervention to curb the illicit flow of small arms and light... more
Since 2014, several legal reforms in Germany have reduced bureaucratic barriers for refugees’ access to work. They were coupled with the introduction of more language classes and other skill-enhancing measures. This proclaimed aim of quickly integrating refugees in the labour market marks a... more
First and second generation programmes of Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR), are no longer ‘fit for purpose’ in contexts of violent extremism. Recognising this, voices from within the United Nations (UN) system have recently called for the development of a practice framework... more
In order to understand Russia's regime we should study the interaction of formal and informal, of charismatic and clientelistic politics, of security politics and loyalty, of insecurity and mobilization, the repertoire of feudal politics and the political economy of state monopolistic capitalism.... more
This article theorizes and empirically investigates the link between ethnic divisions and terrorist attacks on a local scale. We argue that terrorists in ethnic contexts can use two separate provocation strategies: one targeting the government and one targeting opposing ethnic groups in order to... more
We argue that the spatialization of violence in the counterterrorism operations of the War on Terror provides insight for understanding how these operations are legitimized and how they pose a challenge to an international order centered on state sovereignty. Against the background of a discussion... more
The Philippines is a labour exporting country since the 1970s. Due to the contract labour systems in destinations such as the Middle East or East Asia, migrants are usually not able to bring their family members. This development led to the rise of transnational families – families who maintain... more
Ethnicity became a pivotal element of the Bonn Agreement 2001 aiming to end the civil wars in Afghanistan that have been ongoing since 1979. In the political process, ethnic categories were understood as key building blocks of Afghan society. In essence, the Bonn Agreement sought to outbalance... more
“The space of vulnerability” – the title of the influential paper by Michael Watts and Hans-Georg Bohle from 1993 – highlights the importance of spatiality for vulnerability research. As geographers have fundamentally shaped the concept of vulnerability, the issue of spatiality has been crucial for... more
In the past 30 years the concept of vulnerability has been an important paradigm in human geography and development studies. Vulnerability analyses have significantly enhanced our understanding of everyday life under conditions of poverty and food insecurity in the Global South and of people's... more
This scientific report examines the spatial impacts of oil exploitation in Melut County, South Sudan, at six points in the time span between 1999 and 2011, based on Landsat satellite data. Three features were analysed: cropland, oil well pads and roads. Feature extraction consisted of pixel- and... more
This article analyses the dire state of the health system in war-torn Syria. It investigates the drastic changes that have transpired in health provisions since the beginning of the conflict and sheds light on emerging coping mechanisms. The article traces the militarisation of medical care and... more
This article investigates interdependencies between intervening powers and local dynamics in Afghanistan in general and with a focus on the Kunduz region between 2001 and 2015. Using the concept of „Social Order“ the authors analyse how understandings of contexts and self-understandings of... more
This article explores the positionalities of two traditionally mobile groups of people in Afghanistan, former pastoralists and peripatetics, who are currently living in several urban camps in Kabul. Starting from the assumption of their immobilization in-between places, the research shows their... more
Although it is common for armed groups to splinter (or “fragment”) during contexts of multi-party civil war, current guidance on Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) does not address the challenges that arise when recalcitrant fighters, unwilling to report to DDR, break ranks and... more
Recent scholarship has found evidence that refugee flows may inadvertently contribute to the spread of conflict across borders. Little is known, however, about the spatial diffusion of conflict within a state’s borders and what role internal displacement plays in such a dynamic. This question is of... more
Recent critical interventions challenge the Enlightenment critique of war as the radical antithesis of ‘peace’. The negation of war as an epitome of unreason is, indeed, dangerous to the extent that it tends to excite pacifying ‘wars against war’. Yet, what follows from this? The article argues... more
This article argues that humanitarian aid in intra-state conflict plays a crucial but largely unrecognised role in shaping the preconditions for negotiations for peace and post-conflict reconstruction. Drawing on a spatial theory approach, it identifies the role of humanitarian aid as not being... more
Russia’s foreign policy decision-making process is an enigma. Four explanations compete in order to understand Russia’s Ukraine policy: offensive interpretations, including imperial readings, defensive neorealism, a situational and a domestic politics interpretation. The article discusses the... more
Introducing a new cross-national dataset on the ethnicity of refugees, covering the years 1975–2009, this study analyzes refugee flight patterns. We argue that the asylum destination of refugees is not haphazard but determined by trans-border ethnic linkages. Building on migration theories, we... more
The Darfur conflict is part of a bigger lasting violent conflict that had been latent since the 1980 s and erupted massively between 2003 and 2006. Characterized by national conflict constellations within Sudan and South Sudan, as well as violent conflicts crossing borders. International actors are... more
What could be the lessons of the Ukraine conflict for German and European politics? On the backdrop of deep divisions in Germany and the EU over an appropriate Russia policy, the article discusses three options. A policy of appeasement and détente aims at a balance of power among the great powers... more
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) continue to gain important recognition from disaster practitioners and academic researchers during what is arguably the most publicly visible disaster management phase – disaster response. The broader world of GIS academic research and industry practice for... more
Why do non-state armed groups forcibly recruit civilians? To address this question I develop a conceptual framework distinguishing voluntary, coerced and forced recruitment. I then compare the recruitment tactics employed by ‘Mai-Mai’ militias and the RCD-Goma rebel group in the Democratic Republic... more
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This article presents findings from long-term empirical fieldwork and archival research into current and historical patterns of governance in north-eastern Afghanistan, conducted between 2006 and 2009. Despite the long civil war, striking continuities have been found in the make-up and functioning... more
Peace activists, politicians, and the military ask for more capacities in civil conflict transformation. However, the contribution of NGOs depends on context. Civil conflict transformation necessitates a minimum of civilization, it does not solve issues of manifest violence. The nature of the... more
This article presents empirical evidence on changing rainfall patterns in Kurigram district in northern Bangladesh, on the local people's perception of these changes, and on their decision to migrate, or not, in order to cope with rainfall variability and food insecurity. Our study was conducted as... more
In 2007 and 2008, Bangladesh was subject to a food crisis – the outcome of multiple causes – which had a severe impact on the urban poor of the country’s capital. Dhaka’s food supplies were repeatedly disconnected due to floods and cyclones, yet there was always enough food in the megacity thanks... more
High-mountain areas in arid environments are extremely sensitive indicators of sometimes only slight changes of precipitations and temperatures. This holds true especially for the so far under-researched mountain regions of Iran and its immediate neighbours. Climate change, however, is not the only... more
While the borderland between Afghanistan and Pakistan has gained global significance since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, it is too narrow an approach to view this region solely through the lens of the “war on terror”. To understand this border region, one has to take the complex web of conflicts... more
Carl Schmitt’s work on the political is extensively used as an intellectual point of departure in contemporary academic debates about political contestation. More precisely, Carl Schmitt’s friend versus enemy-distinction is invoked as an essential figuration of political contestation. At... more
With its draft Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities, the European Union has become visible in the debate on space security. In this paper we analyze this development, drawing on theoretical concepts in the scholarly debate about the ‘actorness’ of the EU. We find that the EU can be considered... more
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German reunification, the end of the Cold War, and the fall of the iron curtain, as well as the large number of Eastern European countries from the former Eastern bloc that have gradually became members of the EU and/or NATO partners, have resulted in Germany ‘moving’ from the geographical... more
This article pursues the question of how the territorialisation of power in the establishment of the Afghan nation-state has affected the spatial perceptions of political actors and the population at large. This question is particularly topical as spatial references are at present the driving force... more
In the past few years, several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa conducted large scale demobilizations. These are positive signs and create opportunities for sustainable peace and human development. However, demobilization appears to be a complex process. It is closely linked to security issues; and... more
