Goethe-Universität

Dr. Regine Schwab

Research Associate

Vita

Since July 2022, Regine Schwab is working as a research associate at the Professorship of Political Science, especially radicalization and violence research. Within the professorship she will be a part of the Regional Research Center's project "Transformations of Political Violence". In addition, Regine Schwab works as a research associate at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), where she has been employed since 2020. Previously, she was a doctoral candidate at Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, in Halle (Saale) as well as a lecturer at Freie Universität Berlin. She completed her Master of Arts in Social Sciences at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.

Research

Expertise:

Islamist and jihadist groups
Rebel governance
Syria
Intrastate conflicts
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Political violence and terrorism (with focus on intrastate conflicts)
Mixed Methods

Research Interests and Research Project regarding Regional Research Center "Transformations of Political Violence", Research Field 1 – Forms: Change and Continuity of Political Violence.

Research Interests:

Transformations of political violence
Transformations of wars and warfare
Destruction of civilian infrastructure in situations of armed conflicts

Research Projects

Regine Schwab's research focuses on Islamist and jihadist actors in internationalized armed conflict, with a regional specialization on West Asia. I am particularly concerned with structures and institutions these actors (re)build, their behaviour and interaction with other groups but also civilians and external actors, ideological changes, and violence against civilians. I also research opportunities for engaging with militant Islamist groups in order to de-escalate and resolve conflicts.

Publications

Journal Articles (peer review)

2023 Same Same but Different? Ideological Differentiation and Intra-jihadist Competition in the Syrian Civil War. Journal of Global Security Studies 8(1): ogac045.
2023 Escalate or Negotiate? Constraint and Rebel Strategic Choices Towards Rivals in the Syrian Civil War. Terrorism and Political Violence 35(4): 1007-1026.
2018 Insurgent Courts in Civil Wars: The Three Pathways of (Trans)formation in Today's Syria (2012–2017). Small Wars & Insurgencies 29(4): 801–26.

Journal Articles (non-peer reviewed)

2023 Pfeifer, Hanna/Schwab, Regine: Politicising the Rebel Governance Paradigm. Critical Appraisal and Expansion of a Research Agenda. Introduction to the Special Issue, in: Small Wars and Insurgencies, (34:1), 1-23.

Chapters in Edited Volumes

2023 Competitive Rebel Governance in Syria. In Rebel Governance in the Middle East, eds. Ibrahim Freihat and Abdalhadi Alijla. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
2022 Who owns the Law? Logics of Insurgent Courts in the Syrian War (2012 –2017) (with Samer Massoud). In Actors and Dynamics in the Syrian Conﬂict's Middle Phase. Between Contentious Politics, Militarization and Regime Resilience, eds. Jasmine K. Gani and Raymond Hinnebusch. Oxon: Routledge.
2015 Globalizing Elites from the 'Global South': Elites in Brazil and India (with Christian Schneickert and Andreas Kroneder). In Understanding the Dynamics of Global Inequality: Social Exclusion, Power Shift, and Structural Changes, eds. Alexander Lenger and Florian Schumacher. New York:Springer, 229–43.
2014 De-Constitutionalising the Egyptian Constitution. In Proceedings of the International Conference, Tunis, 12-13 November 2013, eds. N. Belakhdar, I. Eickhof, A. El Khawaga, O. Elkhawaga, A. Hamada, C. Harders, S. Sandri. Working Paper Series, 179–92.

Forthcoming

Living to Fight Each Other Another Day: How Insurgent Groups Manage Co-operation in Complex Civil Wars (revision of dissertation as book publication)

Other Publications

2023 The Bombing of Hospitals and Local Violence Dynamics in Civil Wars: Evidence from Syria (with Werner Krause and Samer Massoud). HiCN Working Paper Series 2023 (403).
07/2023 The weaponization of civilian infrastructure. CPD Policy Blog.
05/2023 Arab States' Incentives Towards (not) Normalizing Relations with Syria – Islamists and Drug Trafficking? (with Mustafa Karahamad). PRIF Blog.
03/2023 The Externalization of EU Borders: The Case of Agadez (with Sarah Horváth). PRIF Blog.
02/2023 Eine politische Naturkatastrophe in Nordwestsyrien – das Erdbeben und das Versagen der internationalen Gemeinschaft. PRIF Blog.
03/2022 Blick zurück nach vorn: Was droht bei einer Belagerung ukrainischer Städte? (with Thorsten Gromes and Mustafa Karahamad) PRIF Blog.
06/2021 Withdrawal of NATO troops – Comeback of the Taliban? PRIF Blog.
06/2021 Wütende Kämpfe. Über den Dokumentarﬁlm "As I want“, Gewalt gegen Frauen in Ägypten und die Möglichkeiten politischer Selbstorganisation (with Juliane Röleke). Zeitgeschichte Online.
05/2021 Wechselnde Herrschaft in Postkonﬂiktkontexten (with Hanna Pfeifer). Wissenschaft und Frieden 39(2): 50-51.
02/2021 International Handbook – Countries (Syria). Munzinger Archiv.
01/2021 Why not to deport suspected 'terrorists' to Syria: a security perspective (with Mustafa Karahamad). PRIF Blog.
12/2020 Who are these “Islamists" everyone talks about?! Why academic struggles over words matter (with Hanna Pfeifer and Clara-Auguste Süß). PRIF Blog.
06/2020 Krieg der Bilder – wie das syrische Regime den Bürgerkrieg im Fernsehen weiterführt. PRIF Blog.
03/2020 Ein zweischneidiges Schwert. Rezension zu “The Internet and Political Protest in Autocracies" from Nils B. Weidmann and Espen Geelmuyden Rød. Soziopolis.

Talks and Media

2023 DW: Syrien-Gespräche in Moskau: Assad im Aufwind?, Media Report with Regine Schwab, 05.04.2023.
2022 radioneins-rbb: Rebel Governance. Regierungsführung der Taliban, Broadcast with Regine Schwab vom 13.08.2022.
2022 hr-Info: Syrien-Gipfel in Teheran - Despoten unter sich Putin und Erdogan, Podcast with Regine Schwab vom 19.07.2022.

Dr. Regine Schwab

Research Associate

Vita

Research

Publications

Teaching