This research area looks at the legal and political aspects of international and internal conflicts, as well as of crisis situations of lesser intensity (internal unrest, terrorist campaigns, natural or technological disasters, etc.). The legal research focusses on the international protection regimes regulating state behaviour and protecting individuals affected by the phenomena at hand. The international relations team studies conflict and social change with attention to dynamics of peripheralization, control and liberation, and has a geographic focus on the MENA region, the Sahel and West Africa, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Balkans.