Rolf Hanisch

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Rolf Hanisch (born November 10, 1942 in Berlin ) is a German political scientist . He is a lecturer at the Institute for International Affairs at the University of Hamburg .

Educational path

Hanisch graduated from the Friedrich-Ebert-Schule in Berlin-Wilmersdorf and studied political science, geography, sociology and history at the Free University of Berlin from 1963 to 1968 . From 1970 he worked on his dissertation and was awarded a Dr. rer. pole. PhD. In 1983 Hanisch completed his habilitation at the University of Hamburg and became a private lecturer in political science.

Professional background

After receiving his diploma in 1969, he initially worked as a freelance journalist before becoming a research associate in the "Politics Office of Africa" ​​at the Free University of Berlin from 1970 to 1973. From 1973 to 1976 he was a research assistant at the Institute for Foreign Agriculture at the Georg-August University in Göttingen and from 1976 on the Scientific Council at the Institute for International Affairs in Faculty 02 (Law I) at the University of Hamburg. In April 1998 he was appointed professor. From 1977 to 1981 he was head of the working group "Development Theory and Development Policy" of the German Association for Political Science. During the same period he was also a member of the editorial board of the journal “Constitution and Law in Overseas”. From 1981 to 1998 he was a board member at the Institute for Africa Customers, Hamburg. Between 1991 and 1996, Hanisch was the spokesman for the “Development Theory and Development Policy” section of the German Association for Political Science.

Research focus

As a member of the group of lecturers at the Institute for International Affairs (IIA) at the University of Hamburg, Hanisch researches primarily in the areas of public law and international relations. More precisely defined research focuses are peace and conflict research and in this context the constitutional and fundamental rights, the role of international organizations, in particular international criminal justice, within general international law but also the protection of minorities, as well as within economic and European law and also the nature International relations. In all of the points mentioned, special attention is always paid to north-south relationships.

On numerous research trips, Professor Hanisch researched the problems of developing countries and was, among other things, head of a German-Filipino research project. His focus is on the countries of Southeast Asia , but he also deals with Africa in the context of the state formation problem . As a Southeast Asian country, the Philippines represent a focus of the professor's research, as most of his publications were published through them . He also deals with the economic difficulties during the Asian crisis and the democratization of developing countries. While traveling in the Philippines, he also found out about land reform, peasant movements and trade unions, for example.

In the publication 'Problems and Perspectives of Smallholder Loans in the Rice Sector of the Philippines', Hanisch addresses the problems of the rural and smallholder population in particular. In this study he describes the problem of lending to poor farmers. This is made particularly difficult by the lack of security on the part of the farmers and can therefore only be guaranteed by the state, organizations or other states with a development cooperation background.

In his publication 'Civil War in Africa? Biafra and the internal conflicts of a continent, Hanisch deals with the difficulties and problems that have arisen as a result of the colonization of the continent. Above all, the demarcation beyond an orientation towards tribal and linguistic borders, he is responsible for the numerous civil wars on this continent. As an example, he cites the short-term emergence of the state of Biafra, which was created through tribal differences, but the much stronger Nigeria was unable to assert itself.

The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) constitute a further personal focus of his work , especially with regard to their function and working methods in development-policy topics.

In his essay "NGOs and Democratization in Southeast Asia" z. He assumes, for example, that the problems are mainly due to political structures that are largely autocratic in many states in the region. Furthermore, in this work he speaks of the poorer population's lack of knowledge about personal (participation) rights and political institutions against which the NGOs wanted to work in the context of their work. This would often be made more difficult by the heterogeneity of this social class: Competitive thinking, tensions and mistrust made it almost impossible to reconcile interests among a single NGO. Often only then could crisis situations encourage willingness to work together.

Hanisch sees another crucial problem for the NGOs in their financing and the allocation of funds. Since the financial aid, mostly foreign, was on a voluntary basis, the amount often fluctuated considerably. The local NGOs that are dependent on this money therefore have an unreliable source of income, which in turn has a negative effect on the continuity of their work. A lack of English skills on the Southeast Asian side would complicate the cooperation even more. It is also possible that the interests and priorities of individual NGOs differ significantly. In some cases they are even intertwined with political forces and use their financial resources accordingly in a politically oriented manner. The regional distribution of financial resources within individual NGOs is also unfair and the bureaucratic costs are too high. Hanisch sees considerable deficits in the realization of the objectives of the NGOs, which would have to be remedied in order to increase the effectiveness of their work.

In the summer semester of 2005, Hanisch wanted a lecture on "The 'new' anti-Semitism: A world problem?" hold. This was blocked by students and the Institute for Political Science then carried out a non-public block seminar.

Publications (selection)

Monographs

  • Civil War in Africa? Biafra and the internal conflicts of a continent. Berlin: On Politics and Contemporary History No. 41, 1970
  • Problems and prospects of the smallholder loan in the rice sector of the Philippines. Frankfurt / M. 1982

Anthologies

  • Overcoming rural poverty in the Third World. Problems and perspectives of smallholder development strategies. Frankfurt / M. 1979
  • Social movements in developing countries Baden-Baden 1982
  • Export of democracy to the countries of the south? Hamburg 1996

Essays

  • America and the Security of South Asia, in: Modern World. Journal for international relations, Düsseldorf 1969/2, pp. 204–207
  • Confrontation between Primary Commodity Producers and Consumers. The Cocoa Hold-Up of 1964/65, in: The Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, vol. XIII, No. 3, November 1975, p. 242-260
  • Agrarian Reform and the Societal and Political Interests of Urban Groups in Less Developed Countries, in: Constitution and Law in Übersee, Volume 10, Issue 2 1977, pp. 183-201
  • "Nongovernmental Organizations and Democratization in Southeast Asia", in: "From Politics and Contemporary History" (B21-22 / 2004)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rolf Hanisch: Nongovernmental Organizations and Democratization in Southeast Asia , in: “ From Politics and Contemporary History ” B21-22 / 2004.
  2. ↑ Olaf Kistenmacher: Scientific anti-Semitism: Israel? Which Israel?
  3. ↑ http://www.jaecker.com/2006/02/antizionistisches-einerlei/
  4. ↑ http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/international_projects/chairmanship/juliane_wetzel2.pdf
personal data
SURNAME Hanisch, Rolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German political scientist
DATE OF BIRTH November 10, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin