Jonas Wolff - EDP Network

Jonas Wolff

EDP Network Member

Jonas Wolff is a political scientist working at the intersection of comparative politics and international relations. His research focuses on the transformation of political orders, contentious politics, international democracy promotion, and Latin American politics. Current research projects look at dynamics of interaction in contexts of shrinking civic space, struggles over socioeconomic reforms in Egypt and Tunisia post 2011 in interregional comparison as well as at territorial dynamics of conflict and violence in post-agreement Colombia. Recent publications include The negotiation of democracy promotion (Special Issue of Democratization, 2019, co-edited with AE Poppe and J Leininger), Socioeconomic Protests in MENA and Latin America (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, co-edited with I Weipert-Fenner), and Justice and Peace: The role of justice claims in international cooperation and conflict (Springer, 2019, co-edited with C Fehl, D Peters and S Wisotzki).

In the area of external democracy promotion, past research analyzed the role and relevance of democracy promotion within the larger framework of states’ foreign and development policies as well as justice conflicts and negotiation processes in democracy promotion. Key publications in this area include the above-mentioned Special Issue on The negotiation of democracy promotion, The contested spaces of civil society in a plural world: norm contestation in the debate about restrictions on international civil society support (Contemporary Politics 2017, with AE Poppe), Negotiating interference: US democracy promotoin, Bolivia, and the tale of a failed agreement (Third World Quarterly, 2017), Power in Democracy Promotion (Alternatives, 2015), and The Comparative International Politics of Democracy Promotion (Routledge, 2014, co-edited with HJ Spanger and HJ Puhle).

Jonas is professor of Political Science focusing on transformation research and Latin America at the Goethe University Frankfurt. He is head of the research department “Intrastate Conflict” at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF). He is an executive board member of the Instituto Colombo-Alemán para la Paz (CAPAZ) in Bogotá, Colombia, and co-coordinator of the working group “Andean countries” of the Association for German Research on Latin America (ADLAF).

More about Jonas Wolff here and here.

Contact: jonas.wolff [at] external-democracy-promotion.eu

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Publications by Jonas Wolff

Felix S. Bethke, Jonas Wolff | 2023

Lockdown of expression: civic space restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic as a response to mass protests

In: Democratization pp. 1-19.

Jonas Wolff | 2023

The Deconstruction and Reproduction of Mistrust

In: ConTrust Working Paper No. 4

Jonas Wolff | 2023

Human Rights Movements across Latin America

In: The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Social Movements, pp 422-438.

Leonie Holthaus, Jonas Wolff | 2023

Practices of Policy Orientation: A Study of the Heterogeneous Field of Democracy Promotion Research

In: International Studies Review, Volume 25, Issue 1

Jonas Wolff | 2022

From the Varieties of Democracy to the defense of liberal democracy: V-Dem and the reconstitution of liberal hegemony under threat

in: Contemporary Politics

Jonas Wolff | 2022

The local turn and the Global South in critical peacebuilding studies

in: PRIF Working Papers No. 57

Rebecca Wagner, Jonas Wolff, Nora Berger-Kern, Fabian Hetz | 2021

Defending Civic Space: Successful Resistance Against NGO Laws in Kenya and Kyrgyzstan

in: Global Policy, Volume 12, Issue S5, July 2021

Jonas Wolff | 2021

Talking about self-determination: Contested conceptions and political implications of an undisputed concept

In: Ish-Shalom, Piki (ed.): Concepts at Work: On the Linguistic Infrastructure of World Politics, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 24-42.

Jonas Wolff | 2021

A New Framework for Dealing with Venezuela: From Democracy to Conflict Resolution

Blog post for Carnegie Europe, 17 March 2021.

Jonas Wolff | 2020

What Do We Know about Struggles over Neoliberal Reforms? The Political Economy and the Contentious Politics of Stabilization and Structural Adjustment in Latin America and beyond

In: PRIF Working Paper No. 51, Frankfurt/M.

Jonas Wolff | 2020

One Year Later: The Legacy of Latin America’s 2019 Mass Protests

in: Alternatives Economiques, Hors-Série No 122, 01/2021, pp. 44-45; English translation on PRIF blog, 17 December 2020.

Jonas Wolff, Juan Albarracín, Juan Pablo Milanese, Inge Helena Valencia | 2020

Die politische Logik der Gewalt. Zur Ermordung sozialer Aktivist*innen im Kontext autoritärer lokaler Ordnungen in Kolumbien

PRIF Spotlight 14/20, Peace Research Institute Frankfurt.

Felix S. Bethke, Jonas Wolff | 2020

Die Corona-Pandemie als Bedrohung zivilgesellschaftlicher Handlungsspielräume

in: Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen, 33:3, 671-676.

Jonas Wolff | 2020

Nach Morales: Bolivianische Restauration?

in: Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, Oktober 2020, 41–44.

Felix S. Bethke, Jonas Wolff | 2020

COVID-19 and shrinking civic spaces: patterns and consequences

in: Zeitschrift für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung, Online first, 2 October 2020.

Jonas Wolff | 2020

The Turbulent End of an Era in Bolivia: Contested Elections, the Ouster of Evo Morales, and the Beginning of a Transition Towards an Uncertain Future

in: Revista de ciencia política (Santiago), 40:2, 163-186.

Jonas Wolff, Irene Weipert-Fenner | 2020

Socioeconomic Protests in MENA and Latin America. Egypt and Tunisia in Interregional Comparison

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Jonas Wolff | 2020

Democracy

in: Olaf Kaltmeier/Anne Tittor/Daniel Hawkins/Eleonora Rohland (Hg.): The Routledge Handbook to the Political Economy and Governance of the Americas, London: Routledge, 341-349.

Felix S. Bethke, Jonas Wolff | 2020

COVID-19 as a Threat to Civic Spaces Around the World

in: PRIF Blog, 1 April 2020.

Jonas Wolff | 2020

Polity: Demystifying Democracy in Latin America and Beyond ‐ by Foweraker, Joe

in: Bulletin of Latin America Research, 39:1, 116-117.

Jonas Wolff | 2019

The political economy of post-neoliberalism in Bolivia: Policies, elites, and the MAS government

in: European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, (108), 109–129 (open access).

Jonas Wolff, Nadine Abdalla | 2019

From driver of change to marginalised actor: organised labour in post-revolutionary Egypt from a comparative perspective

The paper analyses why Egypt’s labour movement, while having played a significant role in the run-up to the 2011 revolution, has been increasingly marginalised politically ever since, failing to achieve either significant labour-specific gains and/or broader objectives related to the overall process of political transformation.

Jonas Wolff, Irene Weipert-Fenner | 2019

Socioeconomic Protests in MENA and Latin America: Egypt and Tunisia in Interregional Comparison

This edited volume presents a detailed account of the dynamics of socioeconomic contention in Egypt and Tunisia since 2011. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, it analyses what has happened to the socioeconomic grievances that played a key role in the mass mobilizations of 2010 and 2011.

Jalale Getachew Birru, Jonas Wolff | 2019

Negotiating international civil society support: the case of Ethiopia’s 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation

in: Democratization (2019), 26:5, 832-850.

Annika Elena Poppe, Julia Leininger, Jonas Wolff | 2019

Beyond contestation: conceptualizing negotiation in democracy promotion

in: Democratization (2019), 26:5, 777-795

Annika Elena Poppe, Julia Leininger, Jonas Wolff | 2019

Introduction: negotiating the promotion of democracy

in: Democratization (2019), 26:5, 759-776.

Annika Elena Poppe, Julia Leininger, Jonas Wolff | 2019

The negotiation of democracy promotion. Issues, parameters and consequences

in: Democratization (2019), 26:5.

Jonas Wolff, Luis Gabriel Salas Salazar, Fabián Eduardo Camelo | 2019

Dinámicas territoriales de la violencia y del conflict armado antes y después del acuerdo de paz con las FARC-EP

Instituto Colombo-Alemán para la Paz (CAPAZ), Documento de Trabajo 1/2018.

Jonas Wolff | 2018

Ecuador after Correa. The Struggle over the “Citizens’ Revolution”

in: Revista de Ciencia Política, 38:2, 281-302.

Solveig Richter, Jonas Wolff | 2018

Colombia Under the Duque Government. Policy options to strengthen the peace process

PRIF Spotlight 10/2018, Frankfurt: Peace Research Institute Frankfurt.

Annika Elena Poppe, Jonas Wolff | 2018

Ungebetene Gäste

in: Welt-Sichten, August (8), 8-9.

Annika Elena Poppe, Jonas Wolff, Felix Bethke, Debiel Thomas, Christof Hartmann, Jan Schablitzki | 2018

Nachhaltiger Frieden: Liberal-demokratische Friedenskonzepte unter Druck

in: Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC)/Leibniz-Institut Hessische Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (HSFK)/Institut für Friedensforschung und Sicherheitspolitik an der Universität Hamburg (IFSH)/Institut für Entwicklung und Frieden (INEF) (Hg.), Friedensgutachten 2018, Berlin: LIT Verlag, 65-83.

Jonas Wolff | 2018

Las élites políticas y económicas en Bolivia y Ecuador. Convivir con gobiernos posneoliberales

in: Codato Adriano/Espinoza Fran (eds): Élites en las Américas. Diferentes Perspectivas, Curitiba: Editora UFPR, 73–114.

Jonas Wolff | 2018

The Delegitimization of Civil society Organizations. Thoughts on Strategic Responses to the “Foreign Agent” Charge

in: César Rodríguz-Garavito/Krizna Gomez (eds.): Rising to the Populist Challenge. A New Playbook for Human Rights Actors, Bogotá: Dejusticia, 129–137.

Jonas Wolff, Luis Gabriel Salas Salazar, Fabián Eduardo Camelo | 2018

Dinámicas territoriales de la violencia y del conflict armado antes y después del acuerdo de paz con las FARC-EP

Instituto Colombo-Alemán para la Paz (CAPAZ), Documento de Trabajo 1/2018.

Jonas Wolff | 2018

Political incorporation in measures of democracy: a missing dimension (and the case of Bolivia)

in: Democratization, published online: 16 January 2018.

Jalale Getachew Birru, Jonas Wolff | 2017

Negotiating International Civil Society Support

PRIF Working Papers 36/2017, Peace Research Institute Frankfurt.

Annika Elena Poppe, Jonas Wolff | 2017

Widerstand gegen internationale Zivilgesellschaftsförderung: mehr als nur „eine illegitime Ausrede“

BBE-Newsletter für Engagement und Partizipation in Europa, 7.

Annika Elena Poppe, Jonas Wolff | 2017

Schlechtes Vorbild Deutschland

PRIF Spotlight 2/2017, Frankfurt: Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF).

Annika Elena Poppe, Jonas Wolff | 2017

The contested spaces of civil society in a plural world: norm contestation in the debate about restrictions on international civil society support

in: Contemporary Politics, published online: 21 June 2017.

Jonas Wolff | 2017

Negotiating interference: US democracy promotion, Bolivia and the tale of a failed agreement

in: Third World Quarterly, 38: 4, 882-899.

Jonas Wolff, Hans-Joachim Spanger | 2017

The interaction of interests and norms in international democracy promotion

in: Journal of International Relations and Development, 20: 1, 80-107.

Jonas Wolff, Lisbeth Zimmermann | 2016

Between Banyans and battle scenes: Liberal norms, contestation, and the limits of critique

in: Review of International Studies, 42: 3, 513-534.

Jonas Wolff | 2016

Peacebuilding and Democracy Promotion: What current challenges to the latter might tell us for rethinking the former

in: Tobias Debiel/Thomas Held/Ulrich, Schneckener (eds): Peacebuilding in Crisis. Rethinking Paradigms and Practices of Transnational Cooperation, Abingdon: Routledge, 73-90.

Jonas Wolff, Annika Elena Poppe | 2015

From Closing Space to Contested Spaces. Re-assessing Current Conflicts over International Civil Society Support

PRIF Report 137/2015, Frankfurt: Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF).

Jonas Wolff | 2015

Beyond the liberal peace: Latin American inspirations for post-liberal peacebuilding

in: Peacebuilding, 3: 3, 279-296.

Jonas Wolff | 2015

Power in Democracy Promotion

in: Alternatives, 40: 3-4, 219-236.

Annika Elena Poppe, Bentje Woitschach, Jonas Wolff | 2014

Freedom Fighter versus Civilian Power. An ideal-type comparison of US and German conceptions of democracy promotion

in: Wolff, Jonas/Spanger, Hans-Joachim/Puhle, Hans-Jürgen (eds.): The Comparative International Politics of Democracy Promotion, London: Routledge, 37-60.

Jonas Wolff, Hans-Joachim Spanger, Hans-Jürgen Puhle | 2014

The Comparative International Politics of Democracy Promotion

London: Routledge.

Jonas Wolff | 2014

The question of self-determination in international democracy promotion

PRIF Working Paper 19 (March 2014), Frankfurt: Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF).

Jonas Wolff | 2014

From the Unity of Goodness to Conflicting Objectives: The Inherent Tensions in the External Promotion of Democracy and Civil Society

in: Beichelt, Timm/Hahn-Fuhr, Irene/Schimmelfennig, Frank/Worschech, Susann (eds.): Civil Society and Democracy Promotion, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 67-85.

Annika Elena Poppe, Jonas Wolff | 2013

The Normative Challenge of Interaction: Justice Conflicts in Democracy Promotion

in: Global Constitutionalism 2: 3, 373-406.

Jonas Wolff | 2013

Democracy Promotion and Civilian Power: The Example of Germany’s „Value-Oriented“ Foreign Policy

in: German Politics 22:4, 477-493.

Annika Elena Poppe, Bentje Woitschach, Jonas Wolff | 2012

“Freiheitskämpfer” versus “Zivilmacht”: Die USA und Deutschland im idealtypischen Vergleich

in: Wolff, Jonas/Spanger,Hans-Joachim/Puhle, Hans-Jürgen (eds.): Zwischen Normen und Interessen. Demokratieförderung als internationale Politik, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 49-76.

Jonas Wolff | 2012

Democracy Promotion, Empowerment, and Self-Determination: Conflicting objectives in US and German policies towards Bolivia

in: Democratization 19: 3, 415-437.

Jonas Wolff | 2012

The Conceptual Politics of Democracy Promotion in Bolivia

in: Hobson, Christopher/Kurki, Milja (eds.): The Conceptual Politics of Democracy Promotion, London: Routledge, 119-130.

Jonas Wolff, Hans-Joachim Spanger, Hans-Jürgen Puhle | 2012

Zwischen Normen und Interessen: Demokratieförderung als internationale Politik

Baden-Baden: Nomos.

Jonas Wolff | 2011

Challenges to Democracy Promotion: The Case of Bolivia

Carnegie Paper, März 2011, Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Jonas Wolff | 2011

Theorie des Demokratischen Friedens – Politik der internationalen Demokratieförderung. Eine Skizze des Aufschwungs und der Fusion zweier Paradigmen

in: Dülffer, Jost/Niedhart, Gottfried (eds.): Frieden durch Demokratie? Genese, Wirkung und Kritik eines Deutungsmusters, Essen: Klartext, 227-242.

Jonas Wolff | 2011

Re-engaging Latin America’s Left? US relations with Bolivia and Ecuador from Bush to Obama

PRIF Report 103/2011, Frankfurt: Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF).

Jonas Wolff, Iris Wurm | 2011

Towards a Theory of External Democracy Promotion: A proposal for theoretical classification

in: Security Dialogue 42: 1, 77-96.

Jonas Wolff | 2010

Demokratieförderung als Suchprozess. Die Bolivien- und Ecuadorpolitik Deutschlands in Zeiten demokratischer Revolutionen

PRIF-Report 6/2010, Frankfurt: Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF).

Jonas Wolff | 2009

De-Idealizing the Democratic Civil Peace: On the Political Economy of Democratic Stabilisation and Pacification in Argentina and Ecuador

in: Democratization 16: 5, 998-1026.

Jonas Wolff | 2009

Der innere Frieden der Demokratie diesseits ferner Ideale. Zum erstaunlichen Erfolg demokratischer Stabilisierung und Pazifizierung in Südamerika

in: Bussmann, Margit/Hasenclever, Andreas/Schneider, Gerald (eds.): Identität, Institutionen und Ökonomie: Ursachen innenpolitischer Gewalt, Politische Vierteljahresschrift, Sonderheft No. 43/2009, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 209-234.

Jonas Wolff | 2009

Die externe Förderung von Demokratie und Good Governance zwischen Dominanz und Konvergenz

in: Burchardt, Hans-Jürgen (ed.): Nord-Süd-Beziehungen im Umbruch. Neue Perspektiven auf Staat und Demokratie in der Weltpolitik, Frankfurt: Campus, 245-271.

Jonas Wolff | 2009

Turbulente Stabilität. Die Demokratie in Südamerika diesseits ferner Ideale

Baden-Baden: Nomos.

Jonas Wolff | 2009

Von Kästen und Pfeilen: Cognitive maps als Instrument der akteurszentrierten Prozessanalyse

in: Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft 3: 1, 131-153.

Hans-Joachim Spanger, Jonas Wolff | 2007

Universales Ziel – partikulare Wege? Externe Demokratieförderung zwischen einheitlicher Rhetorik und vielfältiger Praxis

in: Geis, Anna/Müller, Harald/Wagner, Wolfgang (eds.): Schattenseiten des Demokratischen Friedens. Zur Kritik einer Theorie liberaler Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik. Frankfurt/New York: Campus, 261-284.

Anna Geis, Jonas Wolff | 2007

Demokratischer Frieden, Demokratischer Krieg und das Projekt globaler Demokratisierung. Hegemonietheoretische Überlegungen aus neo-gramscianischer Perspektive

in: Buckel, Sonja/Fischer-Lescano, Andreas (eds.): Hegemonie gepanzert mit Zwang. Zivilgesellschaft und Politik im Staatsverständnis Antonio Gramcis. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 181-198.

Hans-Joachim Spanger, Jonas Wolff | 2007

Why Promote Democratisation? Reflections on the Instrumental Value of Democracy

in: van Doorn, Marieke/von Meijenfeldt, Roel (eds.): Democracy: Europe’s Core Value? On the European profile in world-wide democracy assistance. Delft: Eburon, 33-49.

Jonas Wolff | 2007

(De-)Mobilising the Marginalised. A Comparison of the Argentine Piqueteros and Ecuador’s Indigenous Movement

in: Journal of Latin American Studies 39: 1, 1-29.

Harald Müller, Jonas Wolff | 2006

Democratic Peace: Many Data, Little Explanation?

in: Geis, Anna/Brock, Lothar/Müller, Harald (eds.): Democratic Wars. Looking at the Dark Side of Democratic Peace. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 41-73.

Jonas Wolff | 2005

Ambivalent Consequences of Social Exclusion for Real-existing Democracy in Latin America. The Example of the Argentine Crisis

in: Journal of International Relations and Development 8: 1, 58-87.

Hans-Joachim Spanger, Jonas Wolff | 2003

Poverty Reduction through Democratisation? PRSP: Challenges of a New Development Strategy

PRIF Report, No. 66, Frankfurt: Peace Research Institute Frankfurt.

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