The New Research Department Politics at IOS – Basic Ideas and Guiding Principles

In 2025, thanks to additional funding approved by the federal government and the community of states (Bundesländer), the IOS Regensburg will establish a new research area for the study of political change in Eastern Europe. This new Research Department Politics will focus on theoretically and methodologically innovative political science research with a regional focus on Eastern and Southeastern Europe. This includes the various fields of political science, including international relations, as well as related disciplines that study politics. Through multidisciplinary exchange with the other research areas represented at the IOS – economics and history – the new research department will be interdisciplinary and connect with other research that explores political structures and processes. The new research area’s commitment to mixed methods also expresses its multidisciplinary orientation.

We understand the Politics Department as a permanently established structure at the IOS and as a contribution to the further development of comparative and transregional area studies across IOS and the University of Regensburg. In doing so, the IOS will focus on Eastern and Southeastern Europe, but also its transregional connections. The field of politics can thus make an important contribution to further filling still existing gaps in political science research in Germany, which rarely explores Eastern and Southeastern Europe. This applies especially to Southeastern Europe - a region characterized by high political volatility, but which is not systematically researched in Germany from a political science perspective. The Politics Department is intended to remedy this and at the same time bring the necessary political science expertise to the growing Southeast European Studies programs in Regensburg.

In the initial phase, the research agenda of the new department will grow from the current priorities of the political science research group at the IOS. These are currently characterized by three themes: 1) peace and conflict research, 2) international relations with a particular focus on international law, and 3) comparative political science. Another focus of the activities of the political science research group is knowledge transfer and science communication, including policy advice. This will also be further developed and expanded by the new department.

The guiding principle of political science research at the IOS is to take regional specifics seriously and to conduct research on politics with a regional studies approach, i.e., with knowledge of the national languages and local knowledge production. At the same time, state-of-the-art methods should be applied to bring insights gained about Eastern Europe into relevant international forums of political science and international relations. The research area of politics thus pursues the goal of a double integration: of social science into regional studies (area studies) and vice versa. Like the other research areas at the IOS, the research area of politics will be explicitly internationally oriented and will contribute to the promotion of young talent. In doing so, it will continue to try to uphold the principle of researching the region with scientists from the region, even in challenging times. In this way, the research area will perform important translation tasks between different national and regional specialist communities.

Based on this foundation, the Politics department at the IOS has set the goal of making significant contributions to the comprehensive representation of the "Eastern/Southeastern Europe" region in major political science debates in Germany and internationally.