Research Network External Democracy Promotion

Since January 2024, Sonja Grimm is (again) a coordinator of the Research Network ‘External Democracy Promotion’ (EDP)’. Sonja Grimm founded the predecessor of this network in 2005 and coordinated it until 2015.

The Research Network ‘External Democracy Promotion’ (EDP) brings together political science scholars from Europe working at the intersection of international relations and comparative politics. Its joint interest is in the range of cross-border activities by states, non-state actors and international organizations aimed at establishing, improving or defending democracy in third countries. It is the network’s goal to deepen and focus research on democracy promotion as well as strengthen policy advice. Network members regularly come together to discuss research as well as current political developments, collaborate on publication projects, and present research work to academic audiences as well as the politically interested public.

The EDP Network (since 2015) builds and expands upon an already existing structure – the “Discussion Forum External Democratization Policy” (2005-2015). Between May 2015 and April 2019, the network benefited greatly from the generous funding of the German Leibniz Association under the Leibniz Competition. Previous funding was granted by the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) (2005-2010) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) (2010-2015).

PRIF and JMU Würzburg jointly coordinate the network.

More about the research network, its activities, publications and its newsletter can be found here.