I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Hertie School's Centre for International Security in Berlin. Since July 2023, I have been the principal investigator of the project "The Anatomy of the Authoritarian Security Apparatus" (AASAP), funded by the German Research Foundation. Previously, I was postdoc with Anita Gohdes' Professorship of International and Cyber Security and interim Professor of International Political Studies at Witten/Herdecke University, substituting for Nils-Christian Bormann.
I hold a PhD from the Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences at the University of Mannheim. During my doctoral studies, I worked with Sabine Carey's Chair of International Relations, the ERC Project "Repression and the Escalation of Violence," and the Collaborative Research Center "Political Economy of Reforms."
In my research, I want to understand how authoritarian regimes work and why they fail. I am particularly interested in the organization of state repression and its effects on ordinary citizens. Check out my research to find out more about the following questions: How do dictators make their subordinates terrorize entire societies? Under what conditions do officers turn against their political leaders? Who consumes authoritarian state propaganda? Does media censorship prevent public resistance? And what happens around international sports events in authoritarian host regimes?
My work has been published in leading academic journals, including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Journal of Conflict Resolution, European Journal of International Relations, and Comparative Political Studies, among others. It has been recognized with awards such as the APSA Best Article Award (Democracy & Autocracy Section) in 2024 and the Lorenz-von-Stein Prize for the best dissertation in 2020, and it has been featured in prominent media, including The Economist and Der Spiegel.
I hold a PhD from the Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences at the University of Mannheim. During my doctoral studies, I worked with Sabine Carey's Chair of International Relations, the ERC Project "Repression and the Escalation of Violence," and the Collaborative Research Center "Political Economy of Reforms."
In my research, I want to understand how authoritarian regimes work and why they fail. I am particularly interested in the organization of state repression and its effects on ordinary citizens. Check out my research to find out more about the following questions: How do dictators make their subordinates terrorize entire societies? Under what conditions do officers turn against their political leaders? Who consumes authoritarian state propaganda? Does media censorship prevent public resistance? And what happens around international sports events in authoritarian host regimes?
My work has been published in leading academic journals, including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Journal of Conflict Resolution, European Journal of International Relations, and Comparative Political Studies, among others. It has been recognized with awards such as the APSA Best Article Award (Democracy & Autocracy Section) in 2024 and the Lorenz-von-Stein Prize for the best dissertation in 2020, and it has been featured in prominent media, including The Economist and Der Spiegel.
Publications
Articles
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2024. "Does Sportswashing Work? First Insights from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar." The Journal of Politics (Online First) [with Adam Scharpf and Pearce Edwards]
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2024. "Media Impact on Perceptions in Postwar Societies: Insights from Nepal" Conflict Management and Peace Science (Online First): 1-36 [with Sabine Carey and Katrin Paula]
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2023. "The Political Effects of Witnessing State Atrocities: Evidence from the Nazi Death Marches." Comparative Political Studies (Online First): 1-36 [with Alexander de Juan, Felix Haaß, and Adam Scharpf]
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2023. "International Sports Events and Repression in Autocracies: Evidence from the 1978 FIFA World Cup." American Political Science Review 117(3): 909 - 926 [with Adam Scharpf and Pearce Edwards]
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2022. "Career Pressures and Organizational Evil: A Novel Perspective on the Study of Organized Violence." International Studies Review 24(3): 1-23 [with Adam Scharpf]
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2022. "Divergent Perceptions of Peace in Post-conflict Societies: Insights from Sri Lanka." Journal of Conflict Resolution 66(9): 1589–1618 [with Sabine Carey and Belén González]
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2020. "Sometimes Less Is More: Censorship, News Falsification, and Disapproval in 1989 East Germany." American Journal of Political Science 64(3): 682-698 [with Katrin Paula]
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2020. "Why Underachievers Dominate Secret Police Organizations: Evidence from Autocratic Argentina." American Journal of Political Science 64(4): 791-806 [with Adam Scharpf]
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2020. "Grist to the Mill of Subversion: Strikes and Coups in Counterinsurgencies." European Journal of International Relations 26(4): 1032-1060 [with Belén González and Adam Scharpf]
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Chapters in Edited Volumes
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2024. "The Authoritarian Security Apparatus: Officer Careers and the Trade-offs in Command." In Natasha Lindstaedt & Jeroen J.J. Van den Bosch (Eds.), Research Handbook on Authoritarianism (111–126). Edward Elgar Publishing [with Belén González and Adam Scharpf]
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Work in progress
Book Project
Making a Career in Dictatorship: The Secret Logic Behind Repression and Coups. [with Adam Scharpf]
Abstract: Who loyally carries out the dictator's dirty work? And which individuals actively conspire against the leader? To explain such extreme behavior, this book investigates the inner workings of the authoritarian security apparatus and the career prospects of individual officers. The unified theory explains participation in repression (extreme loyalty) and coups (extreme disloyalty) by focusing on organizational promotion systems and the resulting career pressures of those at the losing end. Officers disadvantaged in their professional advancement have an incentive to either demonstrate loyalty towards the current leadership by executing repression or recommend themselves to a successor leader by participating in a coup. In the first step, we use original individual-level career data on all 14,700 army officers in Argentina to analyze biographic differences between individual henchmen, coup plotters, and all other members of the officer corps. We find that officers stuck within the organizational hierarchy and threatened with forced retirement were more likely than their more competitive colleagues to either force their way up in a coup attempt or detour to repressive units in the hope of salvaging their careers. In the second step, we go beyond the case of Argentina and show how the logic of career pressure led to extreme (dis)loyalty in Hitler's Nazi Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union, and Dawda Jawara's Gambia. In the final step, we conduct a macro-quantitative analysis to demonstrate the interdependence of repression and coup attempts caused by career pressure in all authoritarian regimes between 1945 and 2020. Together, the book and its findings have far-reaching implications for understanding unorthodox career trajectories of state agents, bureaucratic compliance and sabotage, and regime stability.
Abstract: Who loyally carries out the dictator's dirty work? And which individuals actively conspire against the leader? To explain such extreme behavior, this book investigates the inner workings of the authoritarian security apparatus and the career prospects of individual officers. The unified theory explains participation in repression (extreme loyalty) and coups (extreme disloyalty) by focusing on organizational promotion systems and the resulting career pressures of those at the losing end. Officers disadvantaged in their professional advancement have an incentive to either demonstrate loyalty towards the current leadership by executing repression or recommend themselves to a successor leader by participating in a coup. In the first step, we use original individual-level career data on all 14,700 army officers in Argentina to analyze biographic differences between individual henchmen, coup plotters, and all other members of the officer corps. We find that officers stuck within the organizational hierarchy and threatened with forced retirement were more likely than their more competitive colleagues to either force their way up in a coup attempt or detour to repressive units in the hope of salvaging their careers. In the second step, we go beyond the case of Argentina and show how the logic of career pressure led to extreme (dis)loyalty in Hitler's Nazi Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union, and Dawda Jawara's Gambia. In the final step, we conduct a macro-quantitative analysis to demonstrate the interdependence of repression and coup attempts caused by career pressure in all authoritarian regimes between 1945 and 2020. Together, the book and its findings have far-reaching implications for understanding unorthodox career trajectories of state agents, bureaucratic compliance and sabotage, and regime stability.
Working Papers
The Audiences of Propaganda in Autocratic Regimes: Evidence from the East German `Black Channel.'
Micro-Dynamics of Coups: Evidence from Argentina. [with Adam Scharpf]
Merch in Dictatorships.
Entertainment and Excessive Violence.
Dictatorships and Western Public Relations Firms. [with Adam Scharpf and Alex Dukalskis]
Micro-Dynamics of Coups: Evidence from Argentina. [with Adam Scharpf]
Merch in Dictatorships.
Entertainment and Excessive Violence.
Dictatorships and Western Public Relations Firms. [with Adam Scharpf and Alex Dukalskis]
Teaching
Seminars
2023, 2022. Authoritarian Politics in International Relations
[MA Substantive Seminar, Hertie School]
2022. Authoritarian Politics in International Relations
[MA Substantive Seminar, Witten/Herdecke University]
2022. Contentious Politics in International Perspective
[BA Substantive Seminar, Witten/Herdecke University]
2021. Authoritarian Politics & International Relations
[MA Substantive Seminar, Hertie School]
2020. Research Design and Practice
[PhD Methods Seminar, German Institute for Global and Area Studies Hamburg]
2020. Survey Methods and Experiments
[PhD Methods Seminar, Adam Mickiewicz University Poznán] [with Anna-Lena Hönig]
2020. State Repression
[BA Substantive Seminar, University of Mannheim] [with Anna-Lena Hönig]
2019. Actors and Dynamics of Authoritarian Rule
[BA Substantive Seminar, University of Mannheim]
2019. Coercive Bureaucracies
[BA Substantive Seminar, University of Mannheim]
2017, 2016. Contentious Politics, Mobilization and Repression
[BA Substantive Seminar, University of Mannheim]
2016, 2015. Political Violence and Repression
[BA Methods Seminar, University of Mannheim]
[MA Substantive Seminar, Hertie School]
2022. Authoritarian Politics in International Relations
[MA Substantive Seminar, Witten/Herdecke University]
2022. Contentious Politics in International Perspective
[BA Substantive Seminar, Witten/Herdecke University]
2021. Authoritarian Politics & International Relations
[MA Substantive Seminar, Hertie School]
2020. Research Design and Practice
[PhD Methods Seminar, German Institute for Global and Area Studies Hamburg]
2020. Survey Methods and Experiments
[PhD Methods Seminar, Adam Mickiewicz University Poznán] [with Anna-Lena Hönig]
2020. State Repression
[BA Substantive Seminar, University of Mannheim] [with Anna-Lena Hönig]
2019. Actors and Dynamics of Authoritarian Rule
[BA Substantive Seminar, University of Mannheim]
2019. Coercive Bureaucracies
[BA Substantive Seminar, University of Mannheim]
2017, 2016. Contentious Politics, Mobilization and Repression
[BA Substantive Seminar, University of Mannheim]
2016, 2015. Political Violence and Repression
[BA Methods Seminar, University of Mannheim]
Lectures
2022. Fundamentals of International Relations and Global Governance
[MA Lecture, Witten/Herdecke University]
2022. Introduction to International Politics
[BA Lecture, Witten/Herdecke University]
[MA Lecture, Witten/Herdecke University]
2022. Introduction to International Politics
[BA Lecture, Witten/Herdecke University]
FAQ
1. You have a very cryptic surname, what should I do?
Please calm down and call me Christian or Chris.
If you insist on formalities, my last name is pronounced ɡlɛːzl̩ (follow the link to enjoy the full listening experience. Interestingly, Gwyneth from Wales and Astrid from Sweden sound more authentic than Marlene from Germany).
FYI, the letter ß (called sharp s or backpack s) is the cornerstone of the German language and a constant companion of tens of millions of people in their everyday lives since it is a constituent part of the most important German words: Bußgeldbescheid (penalty notice), Fleiß (diligence), Kloß mit Soß (potato dumpling with sauce), Preußen (Prussia), and Scheiße (doo-doo).
For all LaTeX users, {\"a} produces "ä" and {\ss} gives "ß".
If you insist on formalities, my last name is pronounced ɡlɛːzl̩ (follow the link to enjoy the full listening experience. Interestingly, Gwyneth from Wales and Astrid from Sweden sound more authentic than Marlene from Germany).
FYI, the letter ß (called sharp s or backpack s) is the cornerstone of the German language and a constant companion of tens of millions of people in their everyday lives since it is a constituent part of the most important German words: Bußgeldbescheid (penalty notice), Fleiß (diligence), Kloß mit Soß (potato dumpling with sauce), Preußen (Prussia), and Scheiße (doo-doo).
For all LaTeX users, {\"a} produces "ä" and {\ss} gives "ß".
