Research

CURRENT PROJECTS

The Domestic Politics of Aid

Development Policies among Emerging Middle Powers

Palgrave Macmillan | International Studies (in progress)

This book presents a comprehensive and nuanced framework for understanding how domestic political dynamics shape aid preferences. It enhances understanding of the motivations and strategies that drive aid donors. Drawing on the case studies of Mexico, Korea, and Turkey in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis—a transformative period in which these states strengthened their roles in regional and global governance—the book explores the conditions in which economic interests, ideational expectations, or a blend of both, as dominant factors in the domestic politics of donor governments, influence preferences toward development aid.

This empirically grounded study not only offers valuable insights into the complexities of development policy formation but also is the first in-depth study on the domestic politics of development policies among emerging middle powers uncovering endogenous sources of their aid strategies that advance their foreign, economic, and diplomatic objectives. By analyzing the middle powers from three different regions, the book offers a global perspective that adds depth to the existing literature.

Research received funding from Mercator Research Center Ruhr (MERCUR), German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), Ruhr University Bochum (Research School and Faculty of Social Science), and International Studies Association (ISA).

Changes and continuities in the roles and identities of IOs

The OECD’s strategy between universal actor and a Western club

German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), current.

In the studies of international organizations (IOs), there is still ambiguity about what like-mindedness entails and a notable lack of research on the disjunctions in the notion of like-mindedness that a single IO represents. This project addresses these conceptual and empirical gaps by examining the paradox of the OECD’s expansion contrasted with the Development Assistance Committee (DAC)’s persistence as a predominantly „Western“ club. Through the cases of South Korea, Mexico, and Turkey, it elucidates the reciprocal dynamics between the identity of a like-minded club and its potential members. [more]

 

 

 

COMPLETED PROJECTS

PhD Project
Material interests and societal ideas in development policy preferences

A Comparative Analysis of Mexico, South Korea, and Turkey

Chair of International Politics, Ruhr University Bochum, 2017-2023

Project output:

  • Dissertation „Material interests and societal ideas in development policy preferences“ [access here].
  • Publication in Contemporary Politics [open access here].
  • 1 work in progress

Research funded by Mercator Research Center Ruhr (MERCUR), German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), Ruhr University Bochum (Research School and Faculty of Social Science), and International Studies Association (ISA).

Aid allocation and partner country selection

German Development Institute, 2017-2022.

This study was conducted as part of the project „German and International Development Cooperation: Allocation Patterns, Decision-making and Future Reform Challenges“ at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (formerly known as German Development Institute). Two short-term Guest Researcher positions were occupied at the Institute in 2017 and 2018.

Project output:

  • Publication in Review of Development Economics [open access here].
  • IDOS Discussion paper [available here].

FIELD RESEARCH PROJECTS

Mexican governmental preferences towards development policy

March 2020, Mexico City, Mexico

The field research was supported by the Ruhr University Research School PLUS (Project International = PR.INT), funded by Germany’s Excellence Initiative [DFG GSC 98/3]

South Korean foreign aid and middle power diplomacy

October 2016, Seoul, Republic of Korea

The field research was supported and funded by the Middle East Technical University (METU) Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit [BAP-04-04-2016-001]