Publications

Nach dem Tod des langjährigen Herrschers Idriss Déby Itno hat im Tschad ein Militärrat die Macht übernommen und die Verfassung ausgesetzt – gegen die Hoffnung der Jugend des Landes und mit der Unterstützung Europas, das sich wenig für dessen Demokratie interessiert.

The death of Chadian president Idriss Déby Itno from injuries sustained on the battlefield just days before he was to start his sixth term in office has been met with shock and incredulity. The Chadian military announced immediately that it would form a transition government headed by Déby’s 37-year-old son, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, for the next 18 months. Like his father, Mahamat is highly ranked in the military. He is a decorated general.

The Kenyan Ministry of Interior recently urged international agencies to close down the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps in Kenya, once again. This comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has already placed great burdens on the lives and livelihoods of refugees and intensified uncertainties. To better understand how the pandemic has affected refugees in Kenya, this paper discusses results from a recent qualitative questionnaire on refugee protection in light of COVID-19. We find that the pandemic has exacerbated existing challenges, and partly created new ones.

Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno, who has ruled since 1990, is gearing up to take on his sixth mandate as head of state. Elections are scheduled for 11 April 2021. And the country’s 2018 constitution allows him to stay in office, if elected, until 2033.

Helga Dickow schreibt in den Blättern für deutsche und internationale Politik über die Situation im Tschad, die gekennzeichnet ist durch demokratisch fragwürdige Ereignisse vor den Präsidentschaftswahlen und durch einen militärischen Kampf gegen den islamistischen Terrorismus gemeinsam mit Frankreich, der zu scheitern droht.

Though the UNHCR in South Africa go to great efforts to be neutral and provide the best possible assistance to those seeking refuge, by design they have to work together with the Home Affairs department. In practice this means that asylum seekers and refugees will often see them as co-responsible for the government (in-)actions. This piece looks at UNHCR and their roles in humanitarian relief, refugee protests and potential encampment policies, to reflect on their relationship to the South African government as well as refugees in the country.

Darstellung des Oeuvres von Rainer Tetzlaff und seines Lehrbuchs Afrika - Eine Einführung in Geschichte, Politik und Gesellschaft.

This comprehensive Handbook analyses the political parties and party systems across the Middle East and North Africa. Providing an in-depth, empirically grounded and novel study of political parties, the volume focuses on a region where they have been traditionally and often erroneously dismissed.

Rangeland, forests and riverine landscapes of pastoral communities in Eastern Africa are increasingly under threat. Abetted by states who think that outsiders can better use the lands than the people who have lived there for centuries, outside commercial interests have displaced indigenous dwellers from pastoral territories.

During the presentation of the masterplan for Anaklia City, a planned smart city and logistics hub at the border between Georgia and the de facto state of Abkhazia, the project CEO, Keti Bochorishvili, highlighted her commitment to the elimination of all barriers that inhibit the smooth flow of investments and commodities and the free movement of those engaged in trading.

Die Beiträge des Bandes untersuchen die unterschiedlichen Dimensionen der lateinamerikanischen Sozialstruktur seit der Jahrtausendwende. Klassische Fragestellungen der Sozialstrukturanalyse finden ebenso Beachtung wie jüngere Forschungsfelder. Der vorliegende Sammelband vereint innovative Beiträge lateinamerikanischer und weiterer Forscher*innen zu den bedeutendsten Dimensionen der gegenwärtigen Sozialstrukturen. Damit liegt erstmalig in deutscher Sprache eine umfassende Zusammenschau der wichtigsten sozialstrukturellen Entwicklungen in Lateinamerika der letzten 20 Jahre vor.

This contribution draws on rhythmanalysis and the political economy of assemblage to provide a framework for understanding the productive spatio‐temporal effects of physical violence on urban rhythms. The paper explores how Buenaventura, Colombia's biggest port city, is transformed both by the growth in container turnover, and through recurring, spatial and temporal practices of violence. What role does violence play in the relation between trade‐driven acceleration through the port, and the aquatic, tidal rhythm that historically shaped the city?

Transformations towards “ecological” infrastructures are often highly contested and reproduce social conflict. To enrich the debate on such contested infrastructure expansions, I combine po-litical economy and political ecology approaches with literature on the “politics of operation” and logistics. This paper analyses renewable energy infrastructures within the Mesoamerican Project, which foments the production of transnational territories and implies a growing role of global corporations in local social struggles.

South African migration governance has adopted an increasingly securitised approach which also blurs the boundaries between refugees and migrants.

Refugee protection is increasingly fragmented, enveloped by an exclusive immigration system and a weak regional approach in terms of free movement.

There are a number of political stakes related to refugee and migration governance:

This report analyses the political economy of migration governance in Niger. The research follows a holistic understanding of migration governance considering irregular migration governance, forced migration governance, as well as governance of emigration (diaspora) and immigration. Each governance type is analysed on three levels –  governance, political stakes and societal discourse.

Early career researchers doing fieldwork in spaces that are security-sensitive, either with regards to the political situation, the research topic or the research surrounding, face many challenges during fieldwork. Questions of ethics, power and representation, but also different aspects of safety and possible limitations must be carefully considered if researchers are conducting fieldwork in security-sensitive environments.

Nine of ten of the world's largest megacities are located in Asia. Reason enough for the team of guest editors Patrick Heinrich, Francesca Tarocco and Daniele Brombal to look at urbanisation in Asia from different perspectives. The result is a wealth of exciting articles from a wide range of disciplines, from theoretical and methodological questions to ethnological case studies and literary contributions. Together they form a multi-layered picture of Asia's major cities. The special edition is published in two volumes under the title "Urban Poetics and Politics in Asia".

This working paper addresses the interrelated notions of positionality, the (self-)perceptions by and about researchers, as well as global inequalities in knowledge production. It presents the experiences of four individual researchers who introspect on issues of insiderness, outsiderness and privilege in academia. The paper first introduces the questions and origins of this piece, then presents the experiences of each researcher in four separate sections. Each contribution uses the first-person narrative and presents the background and topic of study of each researcher.

The current issue of the International Quarterly for Asian Studies (IQAS) is the result of a cooperation with the European Association for Southeast Asian Studies. The contributions take up various discussions around the "New Area Studies" in relation to Southeast Asia. The articles as well as the impulse contributions and comments by renowned Southeast Asian scholars shed light on current developments in New Area Studies and highlight potentials as well as problem areas.

Ausgewählte Texte

Ein Meilenstein bei der Aufarbeitung des Völkermords (1975-79) ist die Verurteilung hochrangiger Repräsentanten der Roten Khmer. Dadurch wurde die Geschichte des Genozids einer breiten Öffentlichkeit bekannt. Die Bevölkerung leidet unter Traumatisierung, politischer Repression, Landraub, Korruption und einem schwachen Justizsystem.

It is against this background of a long and diverse history of migration to South Africa that we seek to engage in the evolution of the South African refugee protection regime linked to the migration management discourse.

Der Sahel gehört weltweit zu den gefährlichsten Konfliktregionen. Die Covid-19-Pandemie wirkt dort wie ein Katalysator auf bestehende Konflikte. Das Aktionsgebiet dschihadistischer Gruppen weitet sich auf die gesamte Region aus. Die Zahl der Binnenvertriebenen und Flüchtlinge nimmt dramatisch zu. Die innenpolitischen Spannungen verschärfen sich.