Ongoing Projects

Autocratization and the Performance of International Organizations (with Thomas Sommerer). 

​​In this project, we analyse if autocratization leads to changes in the performance of International Organizations (IOs). Autocratizers 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 project explores how states like Hungary and Poland try to resolve these conflicting objectives in various policy areas (migration, human rights, climate), and how their behaviour affects the performance of IOs to provide effective policy solutions. 

• Draft paper "Autocratization and Preferences towards the Liberal International Order", presented @DVPW Kongress 2024, under review

• Working paper "The Third Wave of Autocratization and IO Membership" published with IGCC University of California/San Diego, R&R Cooperation & Conflict

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Hollow Multilateralism (with Daniëlle Flonk and Tomoko Takahashi). 

​This project, funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) (2026-2028), 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. ​​

• Draft paper "Autocracies as International Norm Entrepreneurs", R&R JIRD

• Draft paper with ongoing data collection on discourses surrounding internet governance norms, to be presented @ECPR General Conference 2025​​

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Bad Neighbours, Good Company? (with Daniëlle Flonk)

​This project, funded by a Thyssen Foundation grant (2025-2027), investigates how regional organizations (ROs) contribute to democratic decline, particularly in the Global South. While ROs are often seen as stabilizers, this project introduces the concept of hybrid regional organization—ROs where democracies and autocracies coexist—showing how they spread authoritarian practices to members—and beyond. Focusing on the fights over content control, free speech and the role of the state in the digital realm, we examine how these organizations facilitate autocratization by legitimizing digital sovereignty practices. Using a mixed-methods approach, including statistical analysis, discourse network mapping, and case studies of Zambia and India, this research sheds new light on the role of ROs in shaping political regimes and the future of digital governance.​​

• Draft paper "Bad Neighbours, Good Company" (with Daniëlle Flonk) presented @LMU Workshop International Organizations in Turbulent Times 2024

• Draft paper "Autocracy by Invitation: IO Observer Status and the Diffusion of Autocratization" (with Danielle Flonk) presented @EPSA 2025 

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Autocracies as International Lawmakers (with Nina Reiners). 

​This research project funded by UiO:Democracy (Oslo University) (2024-2025)  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.​ 

• Draft paper "Autocracies as International Lawmakers" presented @ECPR General Conference 2022, DVPW-IB 2023, GIGA Conference "From Erosion to Breakdown" 2025

• Workshop in Oslo (hosted by the Faculty of Law and the Norwegian Nobel Institute), 2-4 June 2025

• Dataset "Lawmaking in the UN 6th Committee" with data on resolution sponsorship, topicality, regime type of main sponsor, voting record

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Autocracies and Informality in Global Governance Institutions

​​This project focuses on the role of informality for the politics of authoritarian regimes in global governance with a number of papers examining informal groups, networking, subversion strategies, and non-state actors in IOs.  

• Draft Paper "​Critical, co-opted or coerced? Union Voting Behaviour in the International Labor Association" (with Faradj Koliev) focusing on reactions to autocratization of IO member states with original data on union engagement in the ILO between 1970-2023. 

• ​Draft Paper "Formal Design, Informality and Autocratization of IOs" (with Thomas Sommerer, Karl Vikberg, Karin Sundström) 

• Draft Paper "Authoritarian Informal Coalitions in Global Governance – The Like-Minded Group in the United Nations Human Rights Council" presented @ECPR Joint Sessions 2023, ZU Workshop "Relational Governance" 2024, DVPW Kongress 2024

• Draft Paper "Authoritarian Capture of Civic Space: How authoritarian regimes infiltrate civil society in IOs", presented @ECPR General Conference 2025