Vera van Hüllen - EDP Network

Vera van Hüllen

Former EDP Network Member

Vera van Hüllen is Assistant Professor (Juniorprofessorin) for International Relations at Leuphana University of Lüneburg. During the winter term, she is interim professor for Political Science / Multilevel Governance in Europe at the Otto-von-Guericke-University of Magdeburg; during the summer term 2017, she was visiting professor at the Center for European Integration at the Otto-Suhr-Institute of Political Science at Freie Universität Berlin

Her current research on international democracy promotion focuses on the role of regional organizations (including the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council) and international institutions more broadly for regime transformation and change in the Middle East and North Africa. She investigates in particular the dynamics of transnational human rights politics and authoritarian regime survival and change and the multi-level interaction between different ‘senders’ and ‘recipients’ of (multi-directional) norm transfers.

In the framework of the collaborative research center (SFB) 700 “Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood” at the Free University Berlin, she studied the governance transfer of regional organisations worldwide (2010-2013). The project B2 examined how and under what conditions regional organisations actively set and promote standards of legitimate governance – e.g. in terms of democracy, human rights or rule of law – for their own member states. The project thus elaborated on the view of international democracy promotion through the perspectives of diffusion and comparative regionalism research. In her dissertation, she examined the emergence and quality of cooperation between authoritarian regimes and international actors in the field of external democracy promotion. She analysed the role of political liberalisation and interdependence for the implementation of political dialogue and democracy assistance with seven Mediterranean partners since the early 1990s.

Vera van Hüllen extends the expertise of the Network to a sophisticated level of analysis of democracy promotion strategies and instruments of the European Union. She also brings in extensive knowledge of authoritarian countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

More about Vera van Hüllen here.

Contact: vera.vanhuellen [at] external-democracy.promotion.eu