This group does research in the field of European studies and international politics. The research agendas of its members thus bridge the political science subdisciplines of comparative politics and international relations. The following research foci thus interact with each other:

• The European Union as a political system: Europeanisation, preference formation on European integration, EU migration policy
• Multilevel political systems: federalism, multilevel decision-making, regional interest representation, legitimacy of multilevel governance
• The politics of international interest representation: interest groups and agenda-setting, interest groups in international trade policy
• Trade policy: comparative trade policy, judicialisation in the World Trade Organization, the relationship between the so-called democratic peace and trade policy interests
• International (and European) security: descriptive, explanatory, and prescriptive analysis of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, (nuclear) weapons control, and coercive diplomacy.

Depending on the research question, the group conducts research from a wide array of methodological angles. These range from discourse analysis over comparative case studies to working with large quantitative databases.

The research group conducts first and foremost fundamental scientific research on the basis of internal (BOF programmes) and external (FWO, FP7) funding. This research can in the second place provide the baiss for targeted and long term applied research (funded by the POD research policy, SBO, or the Flemish Community), which combines applied research with doctoral programmes.

Members of the research group

Full Time Staff:

Jan Beyers
            Peter Bursens

Dirk De Bièvre

Tom Sauer

Doctoral Researchers:

Steven Van Hecke

Teaching Assistants:

Marleen Baetens

Marjolein Meijer

Maarten Van Alstein (associated member)

Research Assistants:

Jana Deforche
         Jappe Eckhardt 

Marcel Hanegraaff

Kris Van Berendoncks

Maarten Van Den Eynde