Paper on killings of journalists accepted for publication

Why are journalists killed for the work they do - and why are journalists predominately murdered in institutional democracies, where they should enjoy particular protection? Sabine Carey and Anita Gohdes research this question with new detailed data on killings of journalists globally, identifying type of perpetrator and outlets the journalists were working for. Their results show that, counterintuitively, democratic institutions do not help protect reporters from being murdered. Among institutional democracies, locally elected governments increase the risk that a journalist is murdered by state actors or by unconfirmed perpetrators.

The article “Understanding journalist killings” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Politics. Access the pre-publication paper here.

Sabine Carey presented initial insights from survey on perceptions of security in Georgia

Sabine Carey presented initial insights from a joint project with Jürgen Brandsch at the School of Global & Public Affairs at IE Madrid on 4 December 2020. The project evaluates how borderization affects individuals’ perceptions of their personal security.

Using data from a face-to-face survey based on a random sample of over 2,000 respondents across Georgia, we ask whether respondents see the insecurity of Georgia’s borders as a severe risk to their personal security. We evaluate whether differences in perceptions are related to whether respondents live close to an administrative borderline, whether the type of borderline makes a difference (comparing the borderlines to Abkhazia versus South Ossetia), and whether the perceptions are related to the type of media they use as their main news source.

Dr. Katrin Paula and Dr. Christian Gläßel awarded prizes for their research

Dr. Katrin Paula was awarded all three research prizes for young researcher in the social sciences at the University of Mannheim for her PhD research:

She received the Lorenz-von-Stein Preis for the dissertation in the social sciences at the University of Mannheim.

She was also awarded the prize for the best dissertation by the Foundation for Communication and Media Sciences at the University.

Finally, Dr. Katrin Paula and Dr. Christian Gläßel received the prize for the best “empirical models on social processes” by junior scholars, awarded by the Prof. Dr. Anna and Prof. Dr. Jörg Jiri Bojanovsky Foundation, for their article “Sometimes Less is More: Censorship, News Falsification, and Disapproval in 1989 East Germany”, published in the American Journal of Political Science 64(3), 682-698, 2019.

Dr. Katrin Paula is now Professor for Global Security and Technology at the Technical University of Munich. Dr. Christian Gläßel is postdoctoral researcher at the Hertie School’s Centre for International Security in Berlin. Both were previously researchers at the RATE project and completed their PhD at the University of Mannheim, supervised by Sabine Carey.

Big Congratulations to both of them!!

Sabine Carey participating in a workshop on German Public Opinion on Foreign and Security Policy

Sabine Carey is participating in the workshop “German Public Opinion on Foreign and Security Policy in a Time of Transatlantic Stress”, organised by Tim Büthe, Joseph Grievo, Naoko Matsumura and Atsushi Tago at the TUM School of Governance in Munich, January 2020.

New work on the detrimental impact of war-time militias on post-conflict repression

Sabine Carey and Belén González show in a new study, accepted for publication in Conflict Management and Peace Science, that pro-government militias that carry over from civil war times into the post-conflict period have a detrimental impact on repression in postwar societies. Post-war governments do not very frequently create or align with new irregular armed groups, but if they do, then these new militias target more specifically the opposition but without affecting general levels of repression. The open access article is available here.

Sabine Carey presenting at the University of Zürich

Sabine Carey is presenting joint work with Belén González and Neil Mitchell at the political science research seminar of the University of Zürich/ETH on 24 October 2019. The project analyses how media constraints mediates the response of state to escalate state violence when faced with serious threats to stability.

Presentation at the University of Oslo

Sabine Carey presented joined work with Belén González and Christian Gläßel at the research seminar at the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo on 27 September 2019. It builds on the research on the perception of peace in Sri Lanka.

Katrin Paula successfully defended her doctoral dissertation

Katrin Paula successfully defended her doctoral dissertation "Micro-Dynamics of Mobilization: Evidence from the German Democratic Republic" on 29 April 20179. She passed her written dissertation and oral defense with the highest possible marks. The examination committee consisted of Sabine Carey, Thomas Gautschi and Tobias Wolbring.

In her dissertation, she tackles the question of how mass movements develop in authoritarian settings, where spaces for civil society are constrained and participating in acts of dissent are associated with high personal risks. She develops novel arguments on how citizens access information about the occurrence of protests and of repression and how this shapes their calculations on whether, and where, to join a protest movement. Generating new data on protests on the municipality-day level, on the impact of focal points and the contents of foreign media reports, her results show that protests in the GDR spread predominantly non-spatially, that protests in larger cities attracted people from smaller nearby communities and that foreign media reports about repression lead to an overall backlash, but deterred protests in the communities in which state repression of protesters was reported in West German TV news. Overall her research provides new insights on the dynamics of protest movements in authoritarian regimes on a highly disaggregated level.

Congratulations, Katrin!

New publication on electoral violence

Mascha Rauschenbach and Katrin Paula’s article on electoral violence is now out on FirstView at Journal of Peace Research. using data from seven African countries, their research shows that incumbent supporters are targeted with clientelism, while swing and opposition voters are more likely to be intimidated with violence.

Pro-government militias guidebook online

The new encyclopaedia on pro-government militias, the guidebook, is now online. Please note that this site is under construction and that information for some groups is still missing as we continue to work on completing the guidebook.

Sabine Carey contributes to a workshop at the German Federal Foreign Office

Prof. Carey was invited to participate in the workshop ‘PREVIEW Prediction and Early Warning Workshop’. It takes place at the German Federal Foreign Office, 29-30 January 2019. She presents an overview of the Pro-Government Militias Database and the new Militias Guidebook, and contributes to discussions on how scientists and political decision makers can better work together to improve early warning processes and outcomes.

Initial insights on perceptions of peace

We have posted initial findings from our surveys on perceptions of peace in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Georgia. Updates of our ongoing work will be posted here as well.

Workshop on post-conflict peace and security

From 14-16 November we hosted a workshop on post-conflict intra-state peace and security. At this workshop we discussed early projects, including our initial findings from our surveys in Georgia, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The workshop brought together primarily young scholars from the US, Norway, Sweden, the UK and Germany. Click here for the programme.