Dear EPSA-members, we are currently hiring three research associates / PhD students at the University of Freiburg, Germany. The positions are fully funded by the German Reseach Foundation and are linked to the International Relations projects “Should I Stay or Should I Go? State Exits from Regional Organizations” and “Comparing the Forest Governance Performances of Regional Regimes. A Comprehensive Analysis” respectively (full adds below). We are looking forward to applications by November 15th at the latest. Please let me know in case you have any questions (diana.panke@politik.uni-freiburg.de). Best wishes, Diana Panke Prof. Dr. Diana Panke Professur für Governance in Mehrebenensystemen Seminar für Wissenschaftliche Politik Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg Belfortstr. 20 79085 Freiburg D-Germany Phone: +49 761 203 67567 Email: Diana.Panke@politik.uni-freiburg.de Web: http://www.politik.uni-freiburg.de/professuren/governance https://www.facebook.com/politik.uni.freiburg Job offers! Three funded PhD positions available at the University of Freiburg, Germany Project 1 “Should I Stay or Should I Go? State Exits from Regional Organizations” Starting between January 15th and February 15th 2023, one position as research associates/ PhD candidates are available in the research project “Should I Stay or Should I Go? State Exits from Regional Organizations” at the Chair of Multilevel Governance at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Project summary: The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (EU) made headlines not long ago, attracting a lot of public and scholarly attention. BREXIT is not the only instance in which a member state exited a regional organization (RO). In fact, there are 49 withdrawals from ROs between the years 1945-2020. Studying these withdrawals is important as they can harm international cooperation and potentially trigger further disintegration in the longer run that could even endanger the multilateral world order as we know it. Not all states are equally inclined to leave ROs. In fact, the withdrawals from ROs are mainly driven by smaller states. Also, while some ROs were subject to several withdrawals (e.g. Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa), others experienced just one exit (e.g. the EU) and yet others never lost members (e.g. MERCOSUR). Whereas there is work on state exits from IOs, major findings, do not travel to ROs. As of yet, we do not know why states leave ROs and why some ROs are subject to more withdrawals than others, although understanding exits is of great importance for society and scholars alike. Thus, this project seeks to uncover the reasons behind the phenomenon of state exits from ROs and addresses the research questions: (1) Why are some states more inclined to exit ROs than others? (2) Why are some ROs more prone to state withdrawals than others? More information on the team of and the research conducted at the Chair of Multilevel Governance are available under: https://www.politik.uni-freiburg.de/professuren/governance Your responsibilities include: - Support in the collaborative process of answering the project’s research questions - Data collection based on primary and secondary sources as well as interviews - Coordination of and cooperation with student research assistants - Conducting qualitative case studies - Co-authorship of project publications Requirements: - Completed MA degree in political science (or equivalent social sciences degree) with very good grades (the degree needs to be completed by January 1st 2023 at the very latest) - Interest in the Subdiscipline ‘International Relations’ - Very good skills in qualitative methods - Solid knowledge of theory and practice of international relations - Fluency in English, additional language skills are of advantage - Ability to work in a team and an interest in the research project - Writing a PhD thesis during the three year-contract Please email your application as one pdf file that includes a brief letter of motivation, CV, a list of degrees/grades obtained, copies of your degrees as well as a one page outline of your planned PhD project by November 15th 2022 to sekretariat.governance@politik.uni-freiburg.de (please make sure that the pdf file does not exceed 8 MB). Please note that job interviews will be held on December 1st 2022. Project 2 “Comparing the Forest Governance Performances of Regional Regimes. A Comprehensive Analysis” Starting between January 15th and February 15th 2023, two positions as research associates/ PhD candidates are available in the research project “Comparing the Forest Governance Performances of Regional Regimes. A Comprehensive Analysis” at the University of Freiburg, Germany (Chair of Forest and Environmental Policy & Chair for Multilevel Governance). Project summary: Globalization, internationalization and an increasing number of cross-border environmental challenges like climate change and biodiversity have led political actors to recognize the need of forest policy beyond the domestic level. This has also been mirrored in research with an increasing number of studies on the international forest regime. This body of work revealed that the international regime is fragmented and contributes to forest governance, but does so only with limited effectiveness. While the international level is often under scrutiny, we know less about the governance performances of regional regimes dealing with forest policy despite the fact that there are a total of 76 different regimes on the regional level of which the European Union or the Congo Basin Forest Partnership are prominent examples. Given that the international forest regime’s effectiveness is limited, the comparative and comprehensive study of different regional forest governance regimes and their differences and similarities in performance becomes all the more important. By adopting a comparative approach, this project contributes towards closing gaps in our knowledge about regional regimes. To this end, it examines three research questions on three dimensions of performance, output (words), outcome (deeds) and impact (effects), of forest governance in regional regimes. These are: Do regional regimes differ concerning the type and extend of forest governance output they produce (number of policies, decisions, declarations etc. a regional regime passes) and how can observed variation be explained? Do some regional regimes perform better concerning forest governance outcomes (activities based on regional regime output) and why? When do regional regimes reach a high impact of forest governance (problem-solving ability) and how can variation in this respect be accounted for? More information on the team of and the research conducted at the Chair of Multilevel Governance are available under: https://www.politik.uni-freiburg.de/professuren/governance Your responsibilities include: - Support in the collaborative process of answering the project’s research questions - Data collection based on primary and secondary sources as well as interviews - Coordination of and cooperation with student research assistants - Conducting qualitative case studies (position 1) - Conducting quantitative analysis (position 2) - Co-authorship of project publications Requirements: - Completed MA degree in political science (or equivalent forest or social sciences degree) with very good grades (the degree needs to be completed by January 1stth 2023 at the very latest) - Interest in the Subdiscipline ‘International Relations’ - Very good skills in qualitative methods - Solid knowledge of theory and practice of international relations - Fluency in English, additional language skills are of advantage - Ability to work in a team and an interest in the research project - Writing a PhD thesis during the three year-contract Please email your application as one pdf file that includes a brief letter of motivation, CV, a list of degrees/grades obtained, copies of your degrees as well as a one page outline of your planned PhD project by November 15th 2022 to susanne.hoelscher@ifp.uni-freiburg.de (please make sure that the pdf file does not exceed 8 MB). Please note that job interviews will be held on December 1st 2022.