Citizens in Foreign Policy

  • Recasting the Role of Citizens in Foreign and Security Policy? A DFG-funded research project

    Democratic innovations and changing patterns of interaction between European executives and citizens

    DFG-funded research project (2022-2025)

    For the last decade, politicians and members of national executives in Europe have started to actively engage ordinary citizens in foreign and security policy (FSP), by initiating dialogue and participation processes. Our project investigates this change of the role of citizens in a policy field, usually considered as being dominated by the executive.

    More specifically, we have three objectives:

    1. We analyse and structure (change in) understandings of executive-citizens interactions in FSP as held by executives in Europe.
    2. We investigate if and how these understandings translate into interaction processes of democratic innovations, by which executives alter and possibly deepen citizens’ involvement in FSP.
    3. We assess the ramifications these practices may have for the politics in FSP, as well as how we could evaluate them normatively.

    We empirically map and theoretically conceptualise executive-citizens relations in FSP by comparing the cases of France, Germany, Poland, and the UK.

    A brief description of the project can be found here.

    This project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) und runs from June 2022 to May 2025. It expands and deepens our pre-study of the German case, and it draws on preliminary research on democratic innovations in other European countries (funded by the internal funding line of the HSU).

  • Hanna Pfeifer presented research in Paris

    On 11 April 2025, the Diplomatic and Consular Academy of the Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères and Sciences Po Paris co-organized a grand séminaire on „The External Action of France. Everyone’s Business? Engaging National Stakeholders in Diplomacy“. Hanna Pfeifer presented results from the DFG project in the panel on „Intéresser les citoyens à l’activité diplomatique“.

    The conference brought together scholars of foreign policy and diplomacy as well as diplomats and other practitioners from the field to exchange on the domestic side of and challenges for foreign policy-making and diplomacy under conditions of increased needs for legitimation.

    More information can be found here: https://www.sciencespo.fr/ceri-evenement/fr/evenements/le-grand-seminaire-l-action-internationale-de-la-france-l-affaire-de-tous-ou-comment-engager-la-diplomatie-sur-la-scene-nationale/.

  • Christian Opitz started research visit at Adam Mickiewicz University

    On 7 October 2024, Christian started a six-week research visit with the Democratic Innovations Research Group, led by Prof. Paulina Pospieszna, at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. During his stay, Christian aims to deepen his understanding of democratic innovations in Poland, focusing on this case as part of our broader analysis of dialogue and participation processes in foreign and security policy.

    Collaborating with Prof. Pospieszna and her team, Christian will explore Poland’s distinct approaches to evolving interactions between the executive and citizens in this policy area. The visit will include engagement with both practitioners and academic experts, as well as the collection of empirical data to support our ongoing research.

    In addition to his research, Christian looks forward to contributing to the academic community at Adam Mickiewicz University by participating in discussions with faculty and students, fostering valuable intellectual exchange. This collaboration is expected to enrich the comparative analysis of democratic innovations across Europe and beyond.

  • Presentation of draft paper by Christian Opitz at the 2024 Academic Convention of the German Political Science Association

    On 24 September 2024, Christian Opitz presented his draft paper “Vom Bürgerrat zur Gesellschaft: Wie deliberative Bürgerbeteiligung politisches Vertrauen generalisieren kann [From Citizens’ Council to Society: How Deliberative Citizen Participation Can Generalize Political Trust ]” (working title) at the 29th Academic Convention of the German Political Science Association. This year’s Convention was held at the University of Göttingen.

    In his paper, Christian critically examines the widespread assumption that the expansion of deliberative citizen participation, which is increasingly employed at the national level on an ad hoc basis, could enhance political trust. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory, Christian provides a theoretical exploration of how the political trust that participants build through interaction-based participation processes could potentially diffuse throughout society. The paper discusses various ways for this generalisation of trust and highlights their limitations.

    Christian expresses his gratitude to the discussant, Volker Best (MLU, Halle-Wittenberg), for his insightful and thorough feedback. He would also like to extend his thanks to the fellow panellists Mahir Tokatli, Danny Schindler, Peggy Matauschek, and Denise Al-Gaddooa, as well as to everyone in the audience, for an engaging session.

  • New publication: Kontrollierte Politisierung: Bürgerdialoge im Rahmen der Entwicklung der ersten Nationalen Sicherheitsstrategie in Deutschland

    In the drafting process of Germany’s first National Security Strategy, the leading Auswärtiges Amt (Federal Foreign Office) conducted a participation series that was unprecedented in terms of both quantity and quality. In the summer of 2022, the Auswärtiges Amt offered various dialogue and participation formats across the country, in which randomly selected citizens could contribute their opinions and develop recommendations. However, this innovative opening of the strategy process was limited by certain control techniques used by the Auswärtiges Amt for better manageability and risk avoidance. In this new paper, Christian Opitz, Hanna Pfeifer, and Anna Geis argue that the participation around the National Security Strategy can be understood as a controlled politicisation. The executive specifically politicises some aspects, while at the same time other aspects are intentionally depoliticised. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how controllable a top-down politicisation can be in view of unintended effects.

    The article was published in German with Politische Vierteljahresschrift. It is open access and can be found, downloaded, and read here.

  • New publication: Democratic innovations beyond the deliberative paradigm: a re-conceptualization based on Luhmann’s systems theory

    In his latest article, Christian Opitz discusses the current research on deliberative-participatory democratic innovations conducted by state administration agencies, which exhibits empirical eclecticism and is dominated by a deliberative paradigm. He argues that this paradigm tends to conflate normative prescription with analytical description. In contrast, the article proposes a comprehensive re-conceptualization of such innovations, drawing from Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. It outlines the specific problem these innovations address (function), how they operate in tackling this problem (functioning) and the problems they inevitably raise (dysfunctions). In addition, Christian Opitz’s re-conceptualization retains the possibility to critically compare these (and other) experiments regarding their capability to address emerging challenges within the modern democratic political system.

    The article was published with Democratization. It is open access and can be found, downloaded, and read here.

  • New publication: Democratic Innovations Administered. The Organisational Embeddedness of Public Administrators’ Attitudes Towards Participatory Policy Making

    The prevailing discourse in Deliberative Democracy tends to overlook the pivotal role of public administration in shaping and executing democratic innovations. The new article by Christian Opitz addresses this gap by conceptualising how organisational structures guide public administrators‘ stances on participatory types of deliberative policy making. Drawing on organisational research, it is argued that their attitudes are embedded within reflexive expectations framed by organisational structures. Encompassing programmes, communication channels, and personnel, these decision premises significantly shape the perspectives held by organisational members on democratic innovations. The theoretical argument is illustrated by how German diplomats understand novel participatory formats in national foreign and security policy given the organisational structures at the Auswärtiges Amt. Overall, this work encourages Deliberative Democracy on democratic innovations to engage more with organisational research – and vice versa.

    The new article can be found here.

  • Paper on German public diplomacy presented at EISA PEC 2023

    On 8 September 2023 we presented a draft paper “Public Diplomacy in Germany: Engaging the ‘Public’ on Foreign and Security Policy since 1990” (working title) at the 16th EISA Pan-European Conference on International Relations (PEC). The EISA PEC 2023 was held at the University of Potsdam (Germany).

    Our paper seeks to reconstruct public diplomacy by German state actors in the domestic arena during the last three decades. By zooming in on important “focal points” (e.g. Gulf War, Kosovo War, Afghanistan), we are particularly interested in how the meaning of the “public” has developed over time in these activities. The analysis thus tries to contribute to a more differentiated and dynamic understanding of one of the key terms in the field of public diplomacy.

    We are very grateful to the discussant Paul Beaumont (NUPI, Oslo) for excellent and detailed comments. We would also like to thank our co-panellists Szilvia Nagy, Misato Matsuoka, Irena Kalhousová, Ali Balcı and chair Tatyana Bajenova as well as everyone in the audience for an insightful and fun session.

  • New publication: Opportunities to promote peace policy through new participation formats in foreign policy

    Foreign and security policy is notoriously remote from the public. State elites shield this policy area referring to its sensitivity and complexity; citizens themselves can hardly be mobilised or wooed to make the desired electoral decision in this field. In German foreign policy, there is also a discrepancy between the preferences of citizens on the one hand and foreign policy elites in Germany and partner states on the other – a discrepancy that has been noted for many years and, although often lamented, has only recently been addressed actively. In our new article in Wissenschaft und Frieden, we discuss efforts to bridge this gap and probe their potential for peace policy.

    The article – available in German – can be found here.

  • Paper proposal for the EISA PEC 2023 accepted

    Our paper proposal “Domestic Engagement of German Diplomacy: The Development of the State-society Dialogue on Foreign Policy” for the 16th EISA Pan-European conference on international relations (PEC) was accepted. This year the EISA PEC is to be held at the University of Potsdam (Germany), 5-9 September 2023.

    In the paper, we seek to reconstruct the recent history of the state-society relations in German foreign policy, by zooming in on important “focal points” (e.g. Kosovo, Ukraine). We are particularly interested in how diplomatic actors interacted with citizens at home, and when and why we see change and continuities in the domestic practices of German diplomacy over the years. The paper will be part of the Standing Section 02 “Diplomacy – Past and Present” chaired by Ann Towns and Katarzyna Jezierska.

  • Panel proposal for the 2023 Conference of the research section on International Relations accepted

    Our panel proposal “Diplomacy, the Public Sphere and Participation: New Trends in Foreign Policy (Research)” for the 2023 Conference of the research section on International Relations of the German Political Science Association has been accepted. The panel seeks to discuss ostensible structural changes in foreign policy and diplomacy from different theoretical perspectives on various empirical focuses. Chaired and discussed by Maren Hofius, the following authors will contribute:

    Our panel proposal can be found here (only in German).