International Politics in the Age of Populism and Authoritarianism
The global rise of populism as well as the transregional diffusion of authoritarian practices do not only have an impact on domestic politics and institutions in individual states, but also on foreign policy and international politics. In this Research Focus, we examine the effects of the formation of populist governments on foreign policy change from a comparative perspective. We are also interested in the foreign policy of authoritarian states such as China. Moreover, we explore the longer-term consequences of populist and authoritarian foreign policy on international politics.
The questions to be addressed include: Does the centralization and personalization of foreign policy under populist governments contribute to increased unpredictability and more conflictive international politics? How does the politicization of foreign policy affect the willingness to cooperate, engage in multilateral organizations, and provide global public goods? What are the mechanisms of transregional diffusion and promotion of authoritarian practices and how do they contribute to international autocratization tendencies? The focus does not only lie on the contestation of existing (liberal) governance models, but on the emergence of complex authoritarian linkages beyond nation-states.
Research Projects
- "Populist Discourses on COVID-19 in the Global South" (funded by: DFG, 2021-22).
- "Populism and Foreign Policy" (funded by: DFG).
- "Global autocratic collaboration in times of COVID-19" (VW-foundation, 2021-22)
Selected Publications:
- Klenk, Elias & Gurol, Julia (2023). 'The role of narratives for gaining domestic political legitimacy: China's image management during COVID-19'. Journal of Chinese Political Science, online first: doi.org/10.1007/s11366-023-09865-z.
- Gurol, Julia et al. (2023) 'Authoritarian power and contestation beyond the state', Globalizations, Special Issue.
- Gurol,Julia (2023). 'The authoritarian narrator: China's power-projection and its reception in the Gulf', International Affairs, Vol. 99, No. 2: 678-705.
- Gurol, Julia et al. (2023). 'Elite Networks and the Transregional Dimension of Authoritarianism: Sino-Emirati Collaboration in Times of a Global Pandemic', Journal of Contemporary China, Vol. 32, No. 139: 138-151.
- Ferit Belder et al. (2023) 'Patterns of populist mobilization; comparing narratives on COVID-19 in the global South', International Affairs 99(1): 337-355.
- Gurol, Julia (2022). Autoritäre Modelle der Internetregulierung: Chinas Vorstoß in den digitalen Raum und Implikationen für liberale Demokratien', in: Demokratie und Öffentlichkeit im 21. Jahrhundert - zur Macht des Digitalen. eds: Spiecker, Indra et al., NOMOS.
- Demmelhuber, Thomas, Julia Gurol & Tobias Zumbrägel (2022). The Corona Temptation? Autocratic Linkages in Times of a Global Pandemic', in: The MENA Region and COVID-19: Impact, Implications and Prospect, Zeina Hobaika, Lena-Maria Möller, Jan Völkel (eds.). Routledge: 19-35.
- Gurol, Julia and Schütze, Benjamin (2022). Infrastructuring authoritarian power: Arab-Chinese transregional collaboration beyondthe state. In: International Quarterly for Asian Studies, Vol. 53, No. 2, pp. 231-249.
- Gurol, Julia; Zumbrägel, Tobias & Demmelhuber, Thomas (2022). Elite Networks and the Transregional Dimension of Authoritarianism: Sino-Emirati Collaboration in Times of a Global Pandemic. In: Journal of Contemporary China. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2022.2052444
- Destradi, Sandra, David Cadier and Johannes Plagemann (2021), Populism and Foreign Policy: A Research Agenda (Introduction), in: Comparative European Politics: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41295-021-00255-4.
- Destradi, Sandra and Johannes Plagemann (2019), Populism and International Relations: (Un-)Predictability, Personalization, and the Reinforcement of Existing Trends in World Politics, in: Review of International Studies 45 (5): 711-730.
- Plagemann, Johannes and Sandra Destradi (2019), Populism and Foreign Policy: The Case of India, in: Foreign Policy Analysis 15 (2): 283-301.