Central Asia and Eastern Europe share the legacy of socialist rule and the search for new models of political order. While East Central Europe took a Western path, the long term perspectives for the other sub-regions (Central Asia, the Caucasus, Eastern Europe and parts of Southeast Europe) remain uncertain even twenty years after the change. Some of the predominantly autocratic and neo-patrimonially organised regimes were able to use their natural resources for an economic boom. On the other hand, many countries remained economically unstable and/or politically fragile. Yet even the ‘economic boomers’, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and recently also Mongolia, have yet to prove the viability of their development models and manage the challenge of finding a balance between the winners and losers of the transformation.
Research at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) addresses the following questions:
- What are the trajectories of the political, societal, economic and environmental transformation processes? And which logic do they follow?
- How do these changes affect each other? And what effect does this reciprocity have on the outcome of reforms?
- How can sustainable development perspectives be created?
- How can these processes be supported externally in a constructive and crisis-preventive way?
Team
Bambe, Bao-We-Wal
Bergmann, Julian
Dombrowsky, Ines
Herrfahrdt-Pähle, Elke
Hornidge, Anna-Katharina
Klingebiel, Stephan
Olekseyuk, Zoryana
Roost, Stefanie
Publications
Russia's role in UN development work: influence without investment?
Novoselova, Anna (2025)
Policy Brief (15/2025)
Preference convergence, functional pressure and supranational entrepreneurship: explaining the launch and design of the EU's military assistance mission to Ukraine
Romanyshyn, Iulian / Julian Bergmann (2025)
in: European Security, first published 26 May 2025
Opinion: Amid US fallout, time for the EU to step up assistance to Ukraine
Bergmann, Julian (2025)
published on devex.com, 21 February 2025
Amid US fallout, time for the EU to step up assistance to Ukraine
Bergmann, Julian (2025)
in: devex, 21 February 2025
Supporting Ukraine’s recovery: shrewd geopolitics in times of war
Bergmann, Julian (2024)
The Current Column of 10 June 2024
Multiple missions in the midst of war: integrating Ukraine's recovery and EU accession
Bergmann, Julian / Miriam Kosmehl / Julia Langbein / Gwendolyn Sasse (2024)
Policy Brief 11/2024
The European Union's new Ukraine facility: an important though insufficient step?
Bergmann, Julian (2024)
published on ettg.eu, 02.04.2024
Ukraine-Unterstützung: Europa darf nicht nachlassen
Bergmann, Julian (2024)
Die aktuelle Kolumne vom 26.02.2024
Sicherheitspolitik ist nicht Entwicklungspolitik
Leininger, Julia / Anna-Katharina Hornidge (2024)
Die aktuelle Kolumne vom 19.02.2024
Rebuilding Ukraine: what the international community now needs to consider
Grävingholt, Jörn / Jörg Faust / Alexander Libman / Solveig Richter / Gwendolyn Sasse / Susan Stewart (2023)
Policy Brief 4/2023
Wiederaufbau in der Ukraine: Was die internationale Gemeinschaft jetzt beachten muss
Grävingholt, Jörn / Jörg Faust / Alexander Libman / Solveig Richter / Gwendolyn Sasse / Susan Stewart (2023)
Policy Brief 2/2023
Mehr Impulse für Nachhaltigkeit bitte!
Berger, Axel (2023)
Die aktuelle Kolumne vom 16.01.2023
Ein Wiederaufbau im Schatten des Krieges ist möglich
Grävingholt, Jörn / Gwendolyn Sasse / Jörg Faust / Alexander Libman / Solveig Richter / Susan Stewart (2022)
in: Zeit Online, 29.10.2022
Wiederaufbau in der Ukraine: Wie die EU die Ukraine unterstützen sollte
Bergmann, Julian / Iulian Romanyshyn (2022)
Policy Brief 8/2022
"Soziales nicht außer Acht lassen"
Grävingholt, Jörn (2022)
Interview mit Jörn Grävingholt zum Wiederaufbau in der Ukraine, published on taz.de
Rebuilding Ukraine: how the EU should support Ukraine’s reconstruction and recovery
Bergmann, Julian / Iulian Romanyshyn (2022)
Policy Brief 6/2022
The European Green Deal and the war in Ukraine: Addressing crises in the short and long term
Iacobuta, Gabriela Ileana/ Alexia Faus Onbargi / Nathalie Bolduc / Adis Dzebo / Niels Keijzer / Daniele Malerba / Damien Barchiche / Nicolas Berghmans / Mauricio Böhl / Fabrizio Botti / Michael Brüntrup / Koen Dekeyser / Ines Dombrowsky / Élise Dufief / Elisabeth Hege / Nicolas Heger / Jonas Hein / Alfonso Medinilla / Jean-Carlo Rodríguez de Francisco / Florian Schierhorn / Zoha Shawoo (2022)
ETTG-Paper, July 2022
Developing country views on Russia’s invasion
Klingebiel, Stephan (2022)
published on devpolicy.org, 12.04.2021
Krieg in der Ukraine: Auswirkungen auf die europäische und deutsche Importstrategie von Wasserstoff und Syntheseprodukten - Impulspapier
Wietschel, Martin et al. (2022)
Karlsruhe: HYPAT/Fraunhofer ISI
Mutige Schritte gegen die heranziehende Ernährungskrise sind gefragt
Brüntrup, Michael (2022)
Die aktuelle Kolumne vom 25.04.2022
Welche Rolle sollte der EU Green Deal in Konfliktzeiten spielen?
Faus Onbargi, Alexia / Gabriela Iacobuta / Lukas Hermwille (2022)
Die aktuelle Kolumne vom 04.04.2022
The G7 and multilateralism in times of aggression: Maintaining and strenghtening cooperative and inclusive approaches for the global common good
Beisheim, Marianne / Axel Berger / Lars Brozus / Adolf Kloke-Lesch / Ronja Scheler / Silke Weinlich (2022)
in: T7 Task Force International cooperation for the global common good (March 2022)
Was Putins Krieg für die internationale Zusammenarbeit bedeutet
Grävingholt, Jörn (2022)
Die aktuelle Kolumne vom 23.03.2022
The war in Ukraine: financial, political and credibility challenges for EU-Africa cooperation on peace and security
Bergmann, Julian / Niels Keijzer (2022)
International Development Blog, 23.03.2022
Der Krieg und die Südhalbkugel
Klingebiel, Stephan (2022)
in: Tagesspiegel, 20.03.2022
What future for cooperation in the Arctic? Scenarios after Putin’s war on Ukraine
Wehrmann, Dorothea / Arne Riedel/ Jacqueline Götze / Katarzyna Radzik-Maruszak / Michał Łuszczuk (2022)
International Development Blog, 16.03.2022
Putins Krieg und die Sünden des Westens
Klingebiel, Stephan (2022)
Internationale Politik.de, 16.03.2022
Krieg in der Ukraine: Auswirkungen auf die europäische und deutsche Importstrategie von Wasserstoff und Syntheseprodukten - Impulspapier
Wietschel, Martin et al. (2022)
Karlsruhe: HYPAT/Fraunhofer ISI
UN General Assembly voting on Ukraine – What does it tell us about African states’ relations with external partners?
Keijzer, Niels / Silke Weinlich / Sven Grimm (2022)
International Development Blog, 04.03.2022
Russia in Africa: is great power competition returning to the continent?
Paczyńska, Agnieszka (2020)
Briefing Paper 15/2020
Ukraine's unconsidered losses from the annexation of Crimea: what should we account for in the DCFTA forecasts?
Olekseyuk, Zoryana / Hannah Schürenberg-Frosch (2018)
in: Review of Development Economics 23 (2), 877-901
The devil is in the detail: administrative and fiscal challenges in implementing River Basin Management in Mongolia
Dombrowsky, Ines / Jean Carlo Rodríguez de Francisco / Mirja Schoderer / Ariunaa Lkhagvadorj (2018)
Briefing Paper 17/2018
Proceeding with River Basin Management: legal, financial and political dimensions in Mongolia
Rodríguez de Francisco, Jean Carlo / Annabelle Houdret / Ines Dombrowsky (2017)
Briefing Paper 6/2017
Modeling of FDI in business services: additional effects in case of Ukraine’s European integration
Olekseyuk, Zoryana (2016)
in: The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development 25 (7), 1010-1043
Towers of strength in turbulent times? Assessing the effectiveness of international support to peace and democracy in Kenya and Kyrgyzstan in the aftermath of interethnic violence
Fiedler, Charlotte (2015)
Discussion Paper 6/2015
The institutionalization of River Basin Management as politics of scale – Insights from Mongolia
Houdret, Annabelle/ Ines Dombrowsky/ Lena Horlemann (2014)
in: Journal of Hydrology 519, Part C: 2392-2404
Russland und die Energiewende – ein Zusammenhang?
Ruchser, Matthias (2014)
Die aktuelle Kolumne, 27.03.2014
The river basin as a new scale for water governance in transition countries? A comparative study of Mongolia and Ukraine
Dombrowsky, Ines / Nina Hagemann / Annabelle Houdret (2014)
Environmental Earth Sciences 72(12): 4705–4726
The political economy of governance reform in Central Asia
Grävingholt, Jörn (2013)
in: Joachim Ahrens / Herman W. Hoen (eds.), Institutional reform in Central Asia: politico-economic challenges, London: Routledge, 155–170
Institutionalising IWRM in developing and transition countries: the case of Mongolia
Horlemann, Lena / Ines Dombrowsky (2012)
in: Environmental Earth Sciences