DFG Research Unit "The Promise of Security in Catastrophic Times" (2026-2030)

The DFG Research Unit PROMISE is an interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers from the University of Hamburg (UHH), Helmut- Schmidt-University/University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg (HSU), and the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at Universität Hamburg (IFSH). PROMISE is designed as an intellectual hub for innovative and critical peace and security research in Hamburg.  

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.

RP4: Conceived through Practice: Unearthing the Security Promise Norm and its Contested Meanings (PI Antje Wiener)

To warrant ‘peace and security’ has been an integral part of the post-1945 United Nations (UN) Charter Order. This commitment to the principle has been demonstrated by facilitating its implementation for decades. while the promise of peace and security has enjoyed wide recognition in the UN Charter Order and is almost all-pervasive in the International Relations (IR) literature, we know relatively little about how it achieved this guiding role in international relations. More importantly, what does the promise hold in light of today’s catastrophic times? The leading question is therefore twofold: how has the security promise become a norm (historical emergence), and what does the norm hold in store for today’s global world (present substance)? So far, the security promise remains conceptually underexplored in IR. In a world political context marked by multiple threats and an international politics driven by novel types of ‘deep contestation’ this lack of systematic assessment represents a puzzling and pressing concern. Examining the norm’s historical emergence and current effect within the UN’s institutional setting is therefore RP4’ main research objective. To do this, it retraces the emergence of the security promise retrospectively, paired by multi-sited ethnographic research on the ‘norm bundles’ of ‘climate change’ and ‘war’. It aims to shed light on transformations of state-society relations and contribute to a novel pluralistic approach to the role and effect of the security promise in catastrophic times.

Further Information: https://www.wiso.uni-hamburg.de/en/forschung/verbundprojekte/ru-promise.html