Matthias Basedau

Basedau studied political science, sociology and psychology at the University of Heidelberg. After the Doctorate in Heidelberg (2001, Dr. phil.) he worked as research fellow at the GIGA Institute for African Studies in 2002. There he was responsible for southern Africa (especially Botswana), West Africa and the Sahel (especially Mali, Niger, Chad). Since 2013 he has been teaching as a professor at the University of Hamburg (§ 17 Professorship). In 2014 he was visiting professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo. Since 2018 he has been the director of the GIGA Institute for African Studies in Hamburg.^[1]

Matthias Basedau's main research interests are in the field of Peace and conflict studies (security). These include domestic violent conflicts and conflict resolution, particularly determinants such as ethnicity, strategic natural resources, political institutions and religion as well as natural disasters and population growth. In doing so, he is guided by comparative political science, for example, research on political parties, party systems and democratization; institutional engineering, regime change in Sub-Saharan Africa. Methodologically, he uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, qualitative Small-N comparisons, Comparative Area Studies. His regional expertise is focused on Sub-Saharan Africa and the Global South, in particular West Africa, Sahel and Botswana.

• Member of the External Advisory Committee of the Centro de Estudios Internacionales (CEI-ISCTE), Lisbon (since September 2022)
• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (since November 2021).^[2]
• Member of the national working group “Religion and Development” in the BMZ (National Theme Team ‘Religion and Development’) (since May 2015)
• Member of the advisory board of the HIIK Conflict Barometer (2016–2019)
• External collaborator at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) (since May 2014).

• "Freedom and Development? Religious Actors, Freedom of Religion and Belief and Sustainable Development, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Bonn (2020–2023).^[3]
• "Religion, Conflict and Sustainable Peace", (BMZ), Bonn (February–December 2019)
• "Working group member in the project "Resolving Jihadist Conflicts? Religion, Civil War and Prospects for Peace” at Uppsala University, directed by Isak Svensson and funded by the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (since 2016)
• Co-director: "Religious Minorities: Discrimination, Grievances and Conflict", German Israeli Foundation (GIF) (2016–2019)
• "A dangerous liaison. Ethnicity, Natural Resources and Civil Conflict Onset“, German Research Foundation (DFG) (2012–2017)
• Co-director: “Institutions for Sustainable Peace – Comparing Institutional Configurations in Divided Societies”, Leibniz Scientific Community (WGL), Pact for Research and Innovation (2012–2017).