Christoph Zürcher

Christoph M. Zürcher (born June 3, 1967 in Biel / Bienne ) is a Swiss political scientist and professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa . Before that, he held a chair for governance and empirical conflict research at the Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science at the Free University of Berlin . He researches the causes of civil wars, democratization processes in post-war societies, fragile statehood and the connection between development aid and stabilization in post-war societies.

Life

Christoph Zürcher began studying Baltic and Slavic philology and modern general history at the University of Bern in October 1987 . After completing his doctorate in 1995 ( summa cum laude ), he initially worked as a research assistant at the Chair of International Relations at the Faculty of Administrative Sciences at the University of Konstanz and later at the Eastern European Institute (OEI) at the Free University of Berlin (FU Berlin).

In July 2003 he received his habilitation in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the Free University of Berlin. His habilitation project Institutions and Organized Violence. Conflict and Stability Dynamics in the (post) Soviet Caucasus examined the emergence or avoidance of organized violence in Chechnya , Karabakh , Georgia and Dagestan .

In 2003 he was appointed to the research lectureship “Conflict Research and Stability Export” at the Eastern European Institute of the Free University of Berlin, which was funded by the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft.

After further teaching and research stays in Aix-en-Provence , Stanford and Konstanz, he took over a professorship for governance and empirical conflict research at the Otto Suhr Institute (OSI) of the Free University of Berlin in summer 2006.

In October 2008 he accepted an appointment at the University of Ottawa .

Research priorities

• Collaborative Research Center 700 "Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood: New Forms of Governance?"
• Promotion of democracy in post-conflict states
• Interventions

Selected publications

Monographs

• Zuercher, C., (with A. Gunya and J. Koehler), Empiricheskie Isledovanyia Lokalnykh Kriegov (Empirical Study of Local Conflicts), Moscow, Media Press, 2008.
• Zuercher, C., The Post-Soviet Wars: Rebellion, Ethnic Conflict and Nationhood in the Caucasus, New York University Press, 2007
• Zuercher, C., Institutions and Organized Violence. Conflict and stability dynamics in the (post-) Soviet space, habilitation thesis, Department of Political and Social Science of the Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Shaker Verlag Online Publications, 2007.

Editorships

• Zuercher, C. (with T. Bonacker, M. Daxner and J. Free), Intervention Culture. On the sociology of intervention societies (Culture of Interventions. A Sociology of Societies of Interventions), Wiesbaden, VS Verlag, 2010.
• Zuercher, C., and Koehler, J., Potentials of Dis / Order. Explaining Violence in the Caucasus and in the Former Yugoslavia, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2003, 256 pp.
• Zuercher, C., "Democracy Promotion in Post-Conflict Societies. Special Issue of the Taiwan Journal of Democracy", Taiwan Journal of Democracy, (2), 2009.

Book chapter

• Zuercher, C., (with Michael Barnett), "The Peace Builders Contract", Statebuilding after Civil War, ed. By R. Paris and T. Sisk, Routledge, 2009, pp. 23-53.
• Zuercher, C., (with Ulrich Schneckener), "Transnational Security Governance", Regieren ohne Staat, ed. By T. Risse and U. Lehmkuhl, Baden-Baden, Nomos, 2007, pp. 205-222.
• Zuercher, C., "Georgia's Time of Troubles, 1989-1993," Statehood and Security: Georgia after the Rose Revolution, Bruno Coppieters and Bob Legvold, MIT Press, 2005, pp 83-117.
• Zuercher, C., Baev, P., Koehler J., "Civil Wars in the Caucasus", Understanding Civil War. Evidence and Analysis, Paul Collier and Nicholas Sambanis, The World Bank, 2005, Europa, Central Asia and Other Regions, Vol.2, pp 259-299.
• Zuercher, C., "Chechnya and Kosovo: Reflections in a distorting mirror", Mapping European Security after Kosovo, Peter van Ham and Sergei Medvedev, Manchester University Press, 2004, pp. 179-200.
• Zuercher, C., (with Jan Koehler), "Introduction", Potentials of Disorder. Explaining Violence in the Caucasus and in Central Asia, ed. By C. Zuercher and J.Koehler, Manchester, Manchester UP, 2003, pp. 1-22.
• Zuercher, C., (with Jan Koehler), "Institutions and the Organization of Violence", Potentials of Disorder. Explaining Violence in the Caucasus and in Central Asia, ed. By C. Zuercher and J.Koehler, Manchester, Manchester UP, 2003, pp. 219-241.
• Zuercher, C., (with Jan Koehler), "The art of losing the state. From weak empire to nation-state in Nagorno-Karabakh", Potentials of Disorder. Explaining Violence in the Caucasus and in Central Asia, ed. By C. Zuercher and J.Koehler, Manchester, Manchester UP, 2003, pp. 145-174.
• Zuercher, C. (with N. Roehner and S. Riese), "External Strategies for Post-Conflict Democratization - with a focus on Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia", OSCE Yearbook 2010, OSCE., (Forthcoming)
• Zuercher, C., "The negotiated peace: Interaction and the culture of intervention", culture of intervention. On the sociology of intervention societies (Culture of Interventions. A Sociology of Societies of Interventions), ed. By T. Bonacker, J. Free and C. Zuercher, Wiesbaden, VS Verlag, 2010, pp. 19-29.
• Zuercher, C., "The Bundeswehr in Afghanistan", Army in Action, ed. By Hans J. Giessmann and A. Wagner, Baden-Baden, Nomos, 2009, pp. 328-336.
• Zuercher, C., "When Governance meets Troubled States", Staatszerfall und Governance, M. Beisheim and GF Schuppert, Nomos, 2007, pp 11-28.
• Zuercher, C., "Embedding - Entbettung: Empirical Institution-Centered Conflict Analysis", anthropology of conflicts, ed. By J. Eckert, Transcript Verlag, 2004, pp. 102 - 121.

Essays

• Zuercher, C., "Who Wants Democracy? Explaining Postwar Democratic Transitions," Journal of Democracy, 22 (1), January 2011
• Zuercher, C., (with S. Radnitz and S. Wheatley), "The Origins of Social Capital: Evidence from a Survey of Post-Soviet Central Asia", Comparative Political Studies, (42), 2009, pp. 707-732.
• Zuercher, C., (with N. Roehner and S. Riese), "External Democracy Promotion in Post-Conflict Societies. A Comparative Analytical Framework", Taiwan Journal of Democracy, July 5 (1), 2009, pp. 1-26.
• Zuercher, C., (with Jan Böhnke and Jan Koehler), "Evaluation of Development Cooperation: For Stabilization in Post-Conflict Zones", Zeitschrift für Evaluation, 8 (2), 2009, pp. 215-235.
• Zuercher, C., (with N. Roehner and S. Riese), "External Democracy Promotion in Post-Conflict Societies. Evidence from Case Studies", Taiwan Journal of Democracy, July 5 (1), 2009, pp. 241-259.
• Zuercher, C., (with J. Wheatley), "On the Origin and Consolidation of Hybrid Regimes. The Stae of Democracy in the Caucasus", Taiwan Journal of Democracy, 4 (1), 2008, pp. 1-32.
• Zuercher, C. (with Jan Koehler), "Conflict and Narcotics in Afghanistan: The View from Below", International Peacekeeping, 14 (1), 2007, 62-74.
• Zuercher, C., "Wanted Weakness", Internationale Politik, 60 (13-24), 2005.
• Zuercher, C., (with Jan Koehler), "The state and its shadow. On the institutionalization of hybrid statehood in the South Caucasus", WeltTrends, 12 45, 2004, 84–96.
• Zuercher, C., (with Jan Böhnke, Cornelius Graubner and Jan Koehler), "Objectively measured effect", Development and Cooperation (E&Z), (3), pp. 108-111.
• Zuercher, C., Koehler J., "Conflict and the State of the State in the Caucasus and Central Asia: An Empirical Research Challenge", Berliner Osteuropa Info, (57-68), 2004.
• Zuercher, C., (with C. Graubner), "Dagestan: Stability Despite Adverse Circumstances", Ost-West Gegeninformation, 16 (4), 2004, pp. 1-5.

Reports

• Zuercher, C. (with Jan Böhnke and Jan Koehler), Assessing the Impact of Development Aid in North East Afghanistan: Methods and Approach, German Federal Ministry for Development and Cooperation, 2010.
• Zuercher, C. (with Jan Böhnke and Jan Koehler), Assessing the Impact of Development Aid in North East Afghanistan 2005–2009. Final Report, German Federal Ministry for Development and Cooperation, 2010.
• Zuercher, C., Koehler J., Civic-Military Cooperation in Afghanistan. An evaluation of the Provincial Development Funds, Report prepared for the Federal Ministry of Defense, Berlin and Bonn, 2007.
• Zuercher, C. (with Jan Böhnke and Jan Koehler), Assessing the Impact of Development Aid in Conflict Zones, Report for the Federal Ministry for Development and Cooperation, Bonn, 2007.
• Zuercher, C., Koehler J., Conflict Processing and the Opium Poppy Economy, Report prepared for the PAL / GTZ, Jalalabad and Berlin, 2005.
• Zuercher, C., Analysis of Peace and Conflict Potential in Tajikistan, Report for the GTZ, Berlin, 2004.
• Zuercher, C., Koehler J., Fostering Tolerance in Rural Areas of Tajikistan, Report for the GTZ, Berlin, 2003.

Working papers

• Zuercher, C. (with Jan Koehler), (2007), Assessing the Contribution of International Actors in Afghanistan. Results from a Representative Survey, SFB-Governance Working Paper Series, 7.
• Zuercher, C., (2006), Is More Better? Evaluating Extenal-Led State Building After 1989, CDDRL Working Papers, Stanford.

Web links

• Website by Christoph Zürcher
• Profile on the University of Ottawa website