Assistant Professor in International Security, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
I study the domestic politics of international security: why democracies differ in their involvement in military operations, how parliaments shape decisions on the use of force, and how foreign policy shifts under geopolitical change, most recently Germany’s Zeitenwende and European responses to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
My methodological work advances set-theoretic and multi-method research design, in particular Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). I am the author of Qualitative Comparative Analysis: An Introduction to Research Design and Application (Georgetown University Press, 2021) and co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Foreign Policy Analysis Methods (2023).
You can find my publications, research projects, and CV on this site. Please feel free to reach out.
Upcoming
- 7–9 December 2026
European QCA Conference, IHS, Erasmus University Rotterdam - December 2026 / January 2027
Registration opens for the QCA course at the Lugano Summer School (August 2027, tbc)
Latest Updates
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Ten Years of QCA at the Lugano Summer School
For the eighth time, I taught “Exploring Causal Complexity with Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)” at the Summer School in Social Sciences Methods in Lugano, ten years after the first edition of the course. The intensive one-week course combines lectures with hands-on exercises in R, participant presentations and individual consultations. Continue reading →
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R Manual for QCA, version 4.1
Version 4.1 of the R Manual for QCA adds expanded sections on visualizing results, with templates for creating, customizing and combining X–Y plots, along with new sections on cluster analysis and robustness tests following the protocol of Oana and Schneider. The manual now runs to 44 pages, with an accompanying R script and sample data. Continue reading →
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Uncovering Causal Symptoms Discussed at AQMMR workshop
Hilde van Meegdenburg and I presented our co-authored book manuscript “Uncovering Causal Symptoms: Case Study Research, Process Tracing, and Qualitative Comparative Analysis” at the AQMMR workshop of the Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research at Syracuse University, where it was discussed by James Mahoney and Ingo Rohlfing. Continue reading →
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Article in Public Policy and Administration
“Can the Public Sector Break the Mold?” is out in Public Policy and Administration, co-authored with Alessia Caputo, Lorenzo Taddeucci and Milena Vainieri. Using fuzzy-set QCA and data from 26 Tuscan health districts, we examine the conditions under which public organizations develop sensing capabilities and organizational adaptability. Continue reading →
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Lecture at University of Innsbruck
An invited lecture at the Foreign Policy Lab of the University of Innsbruck on “Pacifism, Isolationism or Anti-Americanism? Explaining Public Opposition to Supporting Ukraine against Russia’s War of Aggression”, based on a paper co-authored with Wolfgang Wagner. Continue reading →
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Methods Masterclass at Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
An online methods masterclass for the Evaluation and Statistics cadres of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office on “Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) for Foreign Policy Analysis”, combining an introduction to the approach with the applied study of the unintended consequences of UN sanctions, co-authored with Katharina Meissner. Continue reading →
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Keynote Speech at 5th Annual QCA Conference of the Americas
I gave the keynote at the 5th Annual QCA Conference of the Americas at the University of Cincinnati, on “Uncovering Causal Symptoms: QCA in Multi-Method Research”. The talk explored how QCA can be combined with case study research and process tracing as part of a multi-method research strategy. Continue reading →
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Book Chapter on European Military Engagement in the Fight Against Daesh
My chapter “Explaining European Military Engagement in the Fight Against Daesh” appears in The Changing Fights and Fighters of Contemporary War, edited by Marie Robin, Amelie Theussen and Kerstin Bree Carlson. An earlier version was presented at the Center for War Studies conference of the University of Southern Denmark. Continue reading →