Conference

Wout Broekema is shortlisted for the Els Witte Prize 2019, an award for best Doctoral dissertation in political science. The prize is instated by the Nederlandse Kring voor de wetenschap der Politiek (NKWP).

Antoaneta Dimitrova, Professor Comparative Governance at Leiden University, Honorata Mazepus, Assistant professor at Leiden University and Dimiter Toshkov, Associate Professor at Leiden University, together with three other authors researched which aspects of state capacity might contribute to opening…

This article offers an inaugural assessment of how silences implicate international law-making in cyberspace through descriptive and normative lenses.

The aim of this project is to study what makes an act or form of violence a specifically political reality.

Minister of Digitalisation Alexandra van Huffelen will give a guest lecture on the government’s ambitions in the field of digitalisation on Monday 12 September. Bram Klievink, professor Digitalisation and Public Policy and founder of The Hague Centre for Digital Governance will act as mediator. ‘Digitalisation…

Advanced Summer School on the European Union and the United Nations in The Hague. Explore global governance, EU–UN cooperation, simulations and institutional visits. Apply by 22 May 2026.

All players on the world stage operate strategically in order to safeguard their interests. Political scientists at Leiden University cast light on this volatile interplay of forces. Their research helps voters, NGOs, governments and international organizations make smart choices in this complex and…

The Institute of Public Administration in The Hague conducts leading research on contemporary policy and management processes within the public sector.

A fragmented political landscape, permanent pressure from current affairs and an increasingly political civil service: our government faces many challenges. This makes it all the more difficult to make important decisions about pensions or the climate. Research and good education can help meet the challenges…

Festival

A team of researchers based at Leiden has taken over the editorship of the journal Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations. For the first time, the journal will now be based outside the United States. The new Editor-in-Chief, Associate Professor Alanna O'Malley…

What drives public agencies’ propensity to engage in more extensive practices and/or to initiate more far-reaching mechanisms of accountability than those mandated by law? In other words, what are the drivers of voluntary accountability?

The government is investing 646 million euros and has set aside a further 3.5 billion to drive economic growth in the Netherlands. Much of the National Growth Fund will be used for scientific innovations. Leiden University is involved in three of the projects.

On 20 February 2019, a special meeting on data science took place in the House of Representatives. The aim of the meeting was to start a dialogue with government organisations about data developments within the government.

Professor Anne Meuwese is calling on governments to show more vulnerability when it comes to providing information about how they function.

Essential services risk being taken over by US Big Tech companies, affecting privacy and digital sovereignty in the Netherlands. Reijer Passchier, Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law and Professor of Digitalisation and the Democratic Rule of Law at OU, co-authored an opinion piece in ‘de Volkskrant’…

Saskia van Otterloo works as a policy advisor on climate adaptation at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management in the Netherlands. She graduated in 2015 with a bachelor's degree in cultural anthropology and development sociology. How does her knowledge of anthropology help her in her job…

Local authorities face numerous major issues in different neighbourhoods, all requiring different approaches and solutions. With this study, Leiden University aims to gain a better understanding of how residents from every neighbourhood in The Hague think and act on such issues. This insight will help…

Major developments worldwide are creating new challenges for society. The pandemic has hit us hard, for example, and we are already feeling the effects of global warming. How can society and politics deal with the urgent problems of our time? That is the theme of the Global Transformations and Governance…

Power and money are not enough for big tech entrepreneurs who are investing billions in digital nations. Reijer Passchier, Professor of Digitalisation and the Democratic Rule of Law (OU) and Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law, and Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional Law, share their concerns…

Terrorism only poses a small risk to people but tends to be a major source of public fear. Through fear, terrorism has far-reaching implications for public governance.

Donald Trump's US election victory is causing major concerns in many countries, including Iran. Afshin Ellian, Professor of Jurisprudence, spoke about this on Dutch all-news radio station BNR: ‘Denying that they're worried is really just for show’.

Eduard Fosch-Villaronga from eLaw - Center for Law and Digital Technologies, together with Hadassah Drukarch and Carlos Calleja, explores how compliance tools could be used as data generators for policy purposes to optimise regulatory frameworks for existing and emerging robot technologies.

In a new Transforming Society article, Salvador Santino Regilme, Associate Professor and Chair of the International Relations Program at Leiden University, critiques the Trump administration’s US–China tariff war as a covert instrument of domestic class warfare.

De EU stelt vereenvoudigingen voor in digitale regelgeving - zoals minder frequente cookiemeldingen - maar tegenstanders waarschuwen voor een gevaarlijke concessie aan grote Amerikaanse techbedrijven Reijer Passchier, universitair docent staatsrecht en hoogleraar digitalisering en de democratische…

Explore the MSc Democracy and Representation at Leiden University: examine challenges facing modern democracies—populism, representation, media influence—and enhance your analytical skills.

Team History of Africa and the Americas

Discover the MSc Democracy and Representation at Leiden University: a structured and intensive programme focusing on democratic challenges like populism and polarization, with electives, research thesis, and small-group teaching.

You will learn how agencies collect information, analyse threats, and support political decision-making, while exploring intelligence failures, democratic oversight, historical practices, and contemporary challenges such as nuclear proliferation and intelligence operations in authoritarian regimes.

Applications are now open for the Summer School ‘The European Union, the United Nations and Global Governance’ (12 - 23 June 2023) for Master-level and PhD students. The activity is supported by the European Union’s Jean Monnet programme (Erasmus+).

Our research group Intelligence and Security, provides a diverse range of educational opportunities that combine theoretical foundations with practical applications in intelligence and security.

NETHATE is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) project seeking to investigate the roots, societal impact and mitigation strategies of hate in offline and online foras.

How do interest groups in the Netherlands use strategic litigation to bring about political, social or legal change, and how does this strategy compare to other, more classical, ways to influence policy?

The research project ‘The History of National Security, 1945-present', is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Campus The Hague/Leiden University and the Netherlands Institute for Military History (NIMH). The project will run until the summer of 2013, when we hope…

What does the interspecies interpretation of the equality principle mean for the liberal democracy, and is it possible to provide for an appropriate legal and political position for animals without defying the classic-liberal principles of the liberal democratic state?

This research cluster is a part of the Institute of Political Science’s research programme ‘Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviour’. Its members study phenomena such as migration, immigration, citizenship, integration, ethnic parties, minority and caste-based politics, borders and migration,…

The central theme of the NWO-project ‘The Promise of Organization’ is the evolution of political organization during the 19th century. We focus on the enthusiasm, arguments and concrete activities of the organizers as well as the criticism offered by opponents of modern political organization.

Journalists in the Netherlands are unhappy about the handling of their requests under the Dutch Open Government Act (Wet open overheid, Woo). They say these requests take too long, produce too little results, and that communication could be better.

Deadline approaching: Applications are still open for the Summer School ‘The European Union, the United Nations and Global Governance’ (16 - 20 June 2025) for Master-level and PhD students. Application deadline: 15 May 2025.

From 13 to 24 June 2022, the Summer School on the European Union, the United Nations and Global Governance, supported by the Erasmus+ (Jean Monnet) Programme was held for the second time.

Staff from Leiden University are starting the Dutch universities’ staggered strike against the government cuts on 10 March. Follow the strike in this liveblog.

Nikoleta Yordanova, a political scientist at Leiden University, will lead an international research consortium funded by the European NORFACE Network to complete a multi-disciplinary project ‘Willingness and Capacity for EU Policy Action in Turbulent Times: Conflicts, Positions and Outcomes’ (EUINACTION).…

Researchers from the Institute of Public Administration and the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at FGGA are launching a new research programme: Governing Polarized Societies (GPS). The programme will focus on the way in which governments are dealing with the increasing polarisation in society.…

Het nieuwe kabinet is uniek, met vier coalitiepartijen en een niet gekozen minister-president. Hoogleraar Staats- en Bestuursrecht Wim Voermans analyseert het kabinet in een opiniestuk voor het NRC, en beschrijft een instabiele en ongekende situatie.