IR in Science

You can’t avoid theory

Photo: Veikko Venemies | Unsplash   In our second contribution to the science blog, we are interested in how to find a suitable theory for your research. We, therefore, talked to Dr Monique Taylor, lecturer at the University of Helsinki, and received some useful tips on finding a theoretical approach and becoming a better researcher.   YJEA: You do research mainly in the field of international political economy (IPE), with a particular interest in governance and institutional change and focus on China and Southeast Asia. Why are you particularly interested […]

IR in Practice

Climate Diplomacy: Working towards climate neutrality

Photo: Matthew TenBruggencate | Unsplash   YJEA: Please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your job. Leonie van der Stijl: My name is Leonie van der Stijl and I’m a Dutch diplomat. I currently work at the directorate for Inclusive Green Growth (IGG) in the climate diplomacy team. The directorate houses a team of about 80 people. We cover food security, water, energy, arctic policies, and climate change. The climate team does two main things: on the one hand, we work on development programs, for example, a lot […]

Foreign, Security and Defence Policy

Future of Europe: German Council Presidency – Sovereignty, but for whom?

Photo: Patrick C. Freyer | Unsplash   On July, 1st, Germany took over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union until the end of 2020. What an exciting time to be in this position, the neutral observer might be tempted to assume, not mistakenly so. The coronavirus pandemic needs to be tackled in a common European effort, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) needs to be agreed on rather urgently and not to be forgotten, the UK will have officially left the European Union, with or without a deal. […]

IR in Practice

Peacebuilding and Conflict Management – How recent graduates founded Wem’Afrika

Photo: Alice Donovan Rouse | Unsplash This is the first contribution to the IR in Practice section of the blog. This category is designed to provide students of IR with insights about possible career paths in IR outside of academia. This time, we interviewed Pauline Ngongang about her NGO and her work in peacebuilding and conflict management.   YJEA: Please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your job? Pauline Ngongang: My name is Pauline and I was born in Cameroon, in the western region. I grew up in […]

IR in Science

“Publish or Perish”

This is the first contribution to our science blog. This category is designed to help students improve their research and rewrite and edit papers into articles ready for publication. We interview senior academics and ask them for their tips for successful and innovative research. This article is the first in a series and deals with the search for an innovative research question and testable hypotheses. For this purpose, we have talked to Prof Dr Christoph Demmke (University of Vaasa) and Prof  Dr Berthold Rittberger (University of Munich) to ask them […]

Welcome

Welcome to the YJEA Blog!

Welcome to the blog of the Young Journal of European Affairs! Here you can find articles on how to improve your scientific research, career paths in International Relations as well as on several topics regarding Europe and the European Union. Contribute to the YJEA Blog Have you always wanted to write about EU politics and share you ideas and thoughts with the world? Have you been working on a shorter opinion piece but not yet had the chance to publish it? Then submit your article to the YJEA Blog! All […]