Month: March 2023

On March 28-29, I gave an applied workshop on Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) at the Center for Comparative Research on Democracy at the Department of Social Sciences of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The workshop was tailored for researchers of the project “Judicial Autonomy under Authoritarian Attack”, led by Prof. Dr. Silvia von Steinsdorff, and funded by the Einstein Foundation Berlin. The two-day workshop followed up on a virtual preparatory session to provide a comprehensive introduction to the method and approach of QCA and its application in the R software environment, based on my book Qualitative Comparative Analysis: An Introduction to Research Design and Application (Georgetown University Press) and the accompanying R Manual. Particular emphasis was placed on finding a suitable QCA research design in line with the broader aims of the project. Many thanks to the whole project team for the warm welcome in Berlin and the engaged and constructive discussions!

On March 15-18, 2023, the 64th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association took place Montréal, Canada. I had four program appearances. First, I co-chaired a roundtable (with Falk Ostermann, Kiel University) on our recently published Routledge Handbook of Foreign Policy Analysis Methods, with contributions from panelists (and contributors to our handbook) Marijke Breuning (University of North Texas), Simon Koschut (Zeppelin University), Sibel Oktay (University of Illinois at Springfield), Hilde van Meegdenburg (Leiden University), and discussant Susan Hannah Allen (University of Mississippi). I further presented a paper on the German Zeitenwende in Foreign and Security Policy in a panel on “The Crisis of Liberal Interventionism”, organized by Cornelia Bacius (University of Copenhagen), with discussant Sibel Oktay and chaired by Brian Rathbun (University of Southern California). I also co-chaired the Foreign Policy Analysis Methods Café (with Marijke Breuning and Falk Ostermann), where I introduced and discussed Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), at one of 7 expert tables in the methods café. Finally, I served as chair and discussant in a panel on “Foreign Influence in the Middle East and North Africa”, with contributions from Nikolaos Lampas (Deree, The American College of Greece), Ora Szekely (Clark University), and Cindy May (London School of Economics and Political Science). Besides these panels, I also took part in the Editorial Board meeting of Foreign Policy Analysis and the FPA Section‘s business meeting, where I had served on the book award committee, together with Sibel Oktay and chaired by Dursun Peksen (Memphis University). Last but not least, we had our traditional “early-bird” Friday 7:15am meeting of the German Political Science Association’s (DVPW) group on foreign and security policy, together with Gordon Friedrichs (University of Freiburg) and Falk Ostermann. We were happy about a nice and diverse turnout of colleagues, despite the early time.

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