Our Research

We are currently experiencing a pervasive and global crisis of peace and security. Core certainties about the protective functions of democratic states and multilateral institutions, taken for granted for decades, are rapidly eroding. What is security in this time marked by entangled crises, catastrophes and loss? The Research Unit PROMISE engages in a concerted interdisciplinary and collaborative research effort to examine ongoing reconfigurations of democratic states’ promises of security in catastrophic times.

In times of growing awareness that not everything can be protected and saved, we study tensions between citizens’ expectations and states as well as International Organization’s attempts to reconfigure their protective roles: how do states and societies struggle over priorities and limits of protection in times of multiplying crises? Who or what is protected, saved, or salvaged, and who or what is abandoned as a result?

PROMISE generates new knowledge by assessing and comparing changes in democratic states’ modes of protection – from triage to inclusive self-organisation –, and by theorising the transformation of promises of security in catastrophic times along four dimensions. We examine governmental and societal responses to three closely entangled and mutually reinforcing crisis dimensions: the rise of war and global conflict, the global trend of autocratization, and the ecological crisis.

PROMISE pursues three overarching research objectives: (1) Modes of Protection: We contribute to empirical analysis and theorising in security studies by developing a conceptual typology of modes of protection in catastrophic times. (2) Renegotiating Promises of Security: We examine how states and societies negotiate and struggle over priorities in dealing with harm and loss, and to identify resulting changes in what promises of security should and can (still) mean today. (3) Theorising promises of security in catastrophic times: We provide theoretical grounding for the current pluralisation of security promises. We aim to theorize not only incremental and linear changes, but also possible deep transformations in promises of security under conditions of heightened loss and harm.