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Prof. Dr. MARIA J. DEBRE

Maria Debre Profil Photo
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About Me 

I am Professor at Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen (Germany) where I hold the Chair for International Relations. 

Previously, I was lecturer at the Faculty for Economic and Social Sciences at Potsdam University (Germany) and post-doctoral researcher in the ERC project "Decline and Death of International Organizations" at Maastricht University (Netherlands). 

I hold a PhD in International Relations from Free University Berlin (Germany) where I was a research fellow at the KFG Research Group "The Transformative Power of Europe", and have been a Fox International Fellow at the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University (USA) and a visiting researcher at Stockholm University (Sweden). 

 

For more information on my research and teaching, please explore my website, download my full CV hereor follow my Twitter account. 

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Research

In my research, I focus on the role of regime type in global governance and challenges and transformations to multilateral organizations.

 

I am particularly interested in the effects of regional and international inter-governmental organizations on the domestic politics of authoritarian regimes, on consequences of regime type for the work of global governance institutions, as well as survival and death of international organizations.

I work predominantly with quantitative and mix-methods research designs and also specialise in the politics of the Global South. My work has been published in the Review of International Organizations, the European Journal of International Relations, Democratization, and Contemporary Politics. I have received the Frank Cass Price 2021 for the best Article by a Young Scholar in Democratization

Research

Publications

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Are International Organizations in Decline? An Absolute and Relative Perspective on Institutional Change. Global Policy, forthcoming (with Hylke Dijkstra).

The Death of Major International Organizations: When Institutional Stickiness is not Enough. Global Studies Quarterly, 2022: 2(4), 1-13 (with Hylke Dijkstra). 

Clubs of Autocrats: Regional Organizations and Authoritarian Survival, The Review of International Organizations, 2022: 17(3), 485-511. 

Covid-19 policy responses by international organizations: Crisis of liberal international order or window of opportunity. Global Policy, 2021: 12(4), 443-454 (with Hylke Dijkstra). 

Institutional design for a post-liberal order: Why some International Organizations live longer than others. European Journal of International Relations, 2021: 27(1):311-339 (with Hylke Dijkstra).

 

The dark side of regionalism: how regional organizations help authoritarian regimes to boost survival. Democratization, 2021: 28(2), 394-413.

Winner of the Frank Cass Price 2021 for best Article by a Young Scholar in Democratization. 

 

Legitimation, regime survival, and shifting alliances in the Arab Spring: Explaining sanction politics during the Arab Spring. International Political Science Review, online first, 2020.

Die „digitale IO“: Chancen und Risiken von Online-Daten für die Forschung zu Internationalen Organisationen. [The “digital IO“: Chances and Risks of Online Data for Research on International Relations.] ZIB Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen, 2018: 25(1) (with Sebastian Knecht).

Out of the Shadows: Authoritarian Regimes, Flawed Elections and International Legitimation, Contemporary Politics, 2017: 23(3), 328-247 (with Lee Morgenbesser).

Work in Progress

The Dictators' Club: How Regional Organizations sustain authoritarian rule. Unpublished Book Manuscript. 

Weathering the Storm? The Third Wave of Autocratization and International Organizations (with Thomas Sommerer). 

Authoritarianism gone Global: How Autocratic Coalitions Undermine Liberal International Norms (with Daniëlle Flonk). 

Autocracies as International Lawmakers (with Nina Reiners). 

Community norms and crisis: changing role conceptions of regional organizations during the Covid-19 crisis (with Laura von Allwörden). 

Governance abhors a vacuum: The afterlives of major international organizations (with Hylke Dijkstra & Tim Heinkelmann-Wild). 

Overview of Courses

This undergraduate seminar focuses on theories of emergence, institutional design, and effect of regional integration in a globally comparative perspective to understand variation in integration across issue areas and regions. 

Comparative Regionalism

Undergraduate

Now on Sale

This undergraduate seminar looks at the role of  International Organizations in democratization processes around the world, covering a variety of activities, from election monitoring, to foreign aid, or sanction politics. 

International Perspectives on Democratization

Undergraduate

Now on Sale

This seminar offers an introduction to research design in the social sciences, covering the research question, literature review, theory development, and methods. It includes a practical colloquium component, and can be adjusted to undergraduate and graduate students.

Introduction to Research
Design

Undergraduate & Graduate

Now on Sale

This undergraduate seminar explores the strategies and interests of the EU and its major member states in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA), addressing political, economic, cultural and security aspects of EU Mediterranean relations. 

EU Foreign Policy in the Middle East

Undergraduate

Now on Sale
Courses

The course explores variations in gender (in)equality across time and regions, addressing how biology, markets, and politics influence socio-economic status and political power of women. 

Sex, Markets, and
Power 

Undergraduate
(Teaching Assistant)

Now on Sale

This undergraduate seminar serves as an introduction to basic theories of International Relations and the role of IGOs and NGOs in various issue areas such as migration, environment, and security. The course employs the problem-based teaching method. 

International Relations: Contemp. Issues & Actors

Undergraduate

Now on Sale

This graduate seminar introduces students to contemporary research on challenges posed to the liberal international order, ranging from contestation and deligitimation by populist and authoritarian governments, to state withdrawal, or death of International Organizations.

Global Governance
in Crisis

Graduate

This graduate seminar introduces students to contemporary debates around  types, legality, employment, 

and effectiveness of bi- & multilateral sanctions by 

comparatively assessing cases in the fields of democratization, conflict studies, disarmament, and terrorism.  

Sanctions in World
Politics

Graduate

This graduate course explores the role, relationships, and modes of influence of global actors in various fields of global public policy making, including an extensive in-class group research project on challenges and reform options of major global conventions. 

Global Public Policy

Graduate

Conferences

Conferences & Workshops

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Weathering the Storm? The Third Wave of Autocratization and International Organizations, University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation Working Paper, November 17, 2023, available at: https://ucigcc.org/publication/the-third-wave-of-autocratization-and-international-organization-membership/ 

(with Thomas Sommerer)

Governance abhors a Vacuum: The Afterlives of Major International Organizations. The British Journal for Politics and International Relations, 2023: online first (with Hylke Dijkstra and Tim Heinkelmann-Wild). 

Are International Organizations in Decline? An Absolute and Relative Perspective on Institutional Change. Global Policy, 2023: 14(1), 16-30 (with Hylke Dijkstra).

The Death of Major International Organizations: When Institutional Stickiness is not Enough. Global Studies Quarterly, 2022: 2(4), 1-13 (with Hylke Dijkstra). 

Clubs of Autocrats: Regional Organizations and Authoritarian Survival, The Review of International Organizations, 2022: 17(3), 485-511. 

Covid-19 policy responses by international organizations: Crisis of liberal international order or window of opportunity. Global Policy, 2021: 12(4), 443-454 (with Hylke Dijkstra). 

Institutional design for a post-liberal order: Why some International Organizations live longer than others. European Journal of International Relations, 2021: 27(1):311-339 (with Hylke Dijkstra).

 

The dark side of regionalism: how regional organizations help authoritarian regimes to boost survival. Democratization, 2021: 28(2), 394-413.

Winner of the Frank Cass Price 2021 for best Article by a Young Scholar in Democratization. 

 

Legitimation, regime survival, and shifting alliances in the Arab Spring: Explaining sanction politics during the Arab Spring. International Political Science Review, online first, 2020.

Die „digitale IO“: Chancen und Risiken von Online-Daten für die Forschung zu Internationalen Organisationen. [The “digital IO“: Chances and Risks of Online Data for Research on International Relations.] ZIB Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen, 2018: 25(1) (with Sebastian Knecht).

Out of the Shadows: Authoritarian Regimes, Flawed Elections and International Legitimation, Contemporary Politics, 2017: 23(3), 328-247 (with Lee Morgenbesser).

Book Reviews

„The Closure of the International System: How Institutions Create Political Equalities and Hierarchies, by Lora Anne Viola.“ 2020. H-Diplo Roundtable XXIII-49

Public Affairs Commentary

Interview. E-International Relations, (December 16, 2022).

Diagnosing Threats to Democracy. University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation Forum (June 18, 2022).

Immune to COVID? The Striking Resilience of International Organisations, LSE COVID-19 Blog, (July 13, 2021)

(with Hylke Dijkstra) 

Trump's 'America First' Approach has Targeted International Institutions -  But they've proved to be resilient. The Loop, (November 25, 2020) (with Hylke Dijkstra) 

How Global Efforts to Promote Regional Organizations Can Strengthen Authoritarian Regimes. Scholars Strategy Network, (June 4, 2018). 

Fatma gegen Goliath. Frauen erlangen das Wahlrecht in Saudi-Arabien. [Fatma vs Goliath. Women gain the Right to Vote in Saudi Arabia.] Mediterranes 1/2016, 40-41.

Der Club der Monarchien – Saudi-Arabiens Kampf um den Erhalt der sunnitisch-royalen Vormachtstellung im Nahen Osten. [The Club of Monarchies. Saudi Arabia’s Fight for Sunni-Royal Hegemony in the Middle East] Alsharq Blog, (Aug. 22, 2015).

 

Omans ungewisse Zukunft – dem Sultanat droht eine Nachfolgekrise. [Oman’s Uncertain Future - Is the Sultanate Threatened by a Succession Crisis?] Alsharq Blog, (Nov. 11, 2014).

The Dictators' Club: How Regional Organizations Sustain Authoritarian Rule. Book Manuscript under contract with Oxford University Press. 

In The Dictators’ Club, I analyze under what conditions and how membership in ROs helps autocratic regimes secure their hold on power. Autocratic incumbent regimes, I argue, sort into Dictator Clubs that help to successfully defend against domestic and international challenges during moments of political instability, thereby reinforcing autocratic rule across the globe. This happens via distinct causal chains. ROs redistribute resources towards authoritarian elites that raise the cost of challenging behavior for the opposition, ROs regulate appropriate behavior amongst fellow members to prevent regional interference on the side of dissenting actors, and ROs protect regimes in case of international pressure and thereby lower the cost of employing repressive tactics. Combining statistical survival analysis and case-based evidence from the Middle East, (Eur)Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America, the book shows that ROs have had a helping hand in defending autocratic regimes from pro-democratic protestors, in co-opting political elites, in legitimizing flawed elections, and in shielding against the fallout from international sanctions. 

 

Autocratization and Preferences towards the Liberal International Order (with Thomas Sommerer)

In this project, we analyse the international behavior of states experiencing democratic backsliding. These states face a double dilemma: they are often dependent on membership in multilateral organizations such as the EU or the WTO, and cannot leave these organizations without consequences. At the same time, they fear the negative impact of sanctions from these organizations in response to their democratic setbacks. The planned project explores how states like Hungary and Poland try to resolve these conflicting objectives in various policy areas (migration, human rights, climate).

Hollow Multilateralism (with Daniëlle Flonk). 

The project examines the role of autocracies as international norm entrepreneurs. We explore how autocracies attempt to influence discourses within international organizations to gain more legitimacy for autocratic practices and thereby undermine liberal values. We focus on dynamics in two policy areas: the regulation of the internet as a new dynamic policy field and the international human rights regime, with particular attention to minority rights protection as a well-established policy field using case studies, machine learning, and document analysis. 

Autocracies as International Lawmakers (with Nina Reiners). 

The joint research project funded by UiO Democracy (Oslo University)  is situated at the intersection of international relations and international law. Building on the widespread concern about the development of "authoritarian international law" expressed by prominent international legal scholars, our collaborative research examines the behavior of autocracies within the United Nations (UN). To do so, we have created a data and text corpus to investigate when and on which topics autocracies submit resolutions in the Sixth Committee (Legal Committee) of the UN, which resolutions they support as sponsors, and which resolutions they block.

Community Norms and Crisis: Regional Organizations during the Covid-19 Crisis (with Laura von Allwörden). 

 

In this paper, we explore how norms of community influenced decision-making of regional organizations during the Covid-19 pandemic. Focusing on the Council of Europe and the Organization of Islamic Conference we use process-tracing and interviews to show that regional organizations are particularly well-suited for rapid crisis response because their bureaucracies want to provide for their community.  

Critical, co-opted or coerced? Union Voting Behaviour in the International Labor Association (with Faradj Koliev)

In this paper, we explore to what extent regime type affects the ability of unions to remain critical actors vis-a-vis their governments and employer representatives in the ILO by focusing on their voting behaviour in the international labor conference and the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations. 

Conferences

American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting, 2021 [virtual], 2023

German Political Science Association (DVPW) 28th Congress, 2021 [virtual] 

International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Conventions – 2017-2021 [2020 canceled due to Covid]

ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops – 2016, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

ECPR General Conference – 2016, 2019-2020 [2020 online], 2022

EISA Pec Pan European Conference on International Relations 2023

German Political Science Association (DVPW) International Relations Section Conference, 2020 [online], 2023

Annual Meeting of the Political Science Section of the German Association for American Studies, Heidelberg, 2019

5th Joint Nordic Conference on Development Research, Copenhagen Business School, 2019

Fox International Fellowship Conference, Yale University, 2018  

German Political Science Association (DVPW) 3-Länder Tagung, University of Heidelberg, 2016 

German Association for the Middle East (DAVO) Annual Congress, University of Bochum, 2015

German Political Science Association (DVPW) Comparative Political Science Section Conference, GIGA Hamburg, 2015   

Workshops

Global Transformations and Governance Challenges Workshop 'Authoritarian States and International Organizations', Leiden University, The Hague, 2023

ERC Workshop 'International Cooperation in Challenging Times', University of Zurich, 2022. 

UC Institute on Global Conflict Workshop ‘The Authoritarian Turn in International Relations: The Institutional Dimension’, University of California San Diego (2022)

ERC Workshop "International Institutions: Backlash and Resilience", University of Zurich, 2021

ECR Workshop ‘The Contestation of Liberal Democracy’, Scripts Cluster & Instituto de Ciencia Política Chile, 2021 [virtual] 

Politics and Culter (PCE) Research Cluster Meeting 'Europe and the Crisis of Rule-Based Order', January 2021 [online]

Politicologenetmaal, Workshop “Global Order in Crisis?”, Radboud University, Nijmegen, 2020 (Co-organizer) [workshop canceled due to Covid]

 

ERC Workshop ‘Decline and Death of International Organizations’, Brussels Campus, Maastricht University, 2020 (Co-organizer)

Maastricht-York Workshop, ‘Europe and the future of global rules and multilateralism’, Maastricht University, 2019

ISA Venture Research Workshop ‘International Organization Dissolution’, University of Zurich, 2019  

Authoritarian Politics and International Relations (APIR) Seminar, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), 2019 

Author’s Workshop ‘Regional Democracy Protection and Sanctions’, Stockholm University, 2019  

7th International Joint Ph.D. Workshop of the Berlin Graduate School for Transnational Studies (BTS) and the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 2017

 

Authoritarianism in a Global Age Project Meeting, University of Amsterdam, 2017

Contact
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Berlin, Germany

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