External Democracy Promotion Network

The Research Network ‘External Democracy Promotion’ (EDP) brings together political science scholars from Europe working at the intersection of international relations and comparative politics. Our 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 our goal to deepen and focus research on democracy promotion as well as strengthen policy advice, and we regularly come together to discuss our research as well as current political developments, collaborate on publication projects, and present our work to academic audiences as well as the politically interested public.
The EDP Network, which has officially launched in May 2015, builds and expands upon an already existing structure – the “Discussion Forum External Democratization Policy”. 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 German Research Foundation (DFG) (2010-2015). Coordination of the network is currently based at PRIF.