International Institute of Social Studies

Part of Erasmus University Rotterdam
Students sit around the table in ISS's ADO lounge

Focus on Crisis, Politics and Law

Beyond the Crisis: What Critical Realism asks us to see

War, climate change, migration, democratic backsliding and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence can seem like separate crises demanding separate responses. But what if focusing on what is happening prevents us from understanding why it is happening?

Understanding today's complex crises
Participants at the Critical Realism Conference 2026

Making sense of the genocide in Gaza

Conversation between Dr Jeff Handmaker, Osama Al Shamleh and Emmylou Savage about their experiences of the current violence in Israel, Palestine and the broader region

Read the DevISSues article here
Three people with headphones sitting around a table speaking into microphones

Crisis, Politics and Law Academic Team

The Crisis, Politics and Law Academic Team addresses systematic crises of governance, justice and urbanity

More about our research
Duck-Rabbit illusion - the mind's eye1892

The KidsRights Index Report

An annual global index ranking how countries adhere to and are equipped to improve children's rights

Read the 2026 KidsRights Index report
KidsRights Index logo

'Don't waste a good crisis'

Crisis, Continuity and Change investigates the interaction between analyses of crisis in their own right and crises in/of something

Crisis, Continuity and Change
The complexity of a nebula - Realist Complexity Conference

Legal Mobilization: Analyzing law-based advocacy

This research project investigates legitimate means to resolve conflicts and redress rule of law and justice deficits. It takes a critical approach, studying law-based interventions in the Global South and North.

Find out more about this project
Composition 8 huile sur toile - Vassily Kandinsky 1923

Highlights

Impact Explorer grant investigating transactional sex in the context of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia

Research investigating institutional responses to populations affected by transactional sex

ListenH project Colombia - two women walking along path

Professor Linnet Taylor new Chair in Global Digital Politics at ISS

Leading a team working on the PublicLab: Improving governance of digital experiments project

Linnet Taylor

ISS scholarship finder

Our country-based scholarship finder can help you identify funding opportunities for your MA at ISS

Smiling student working in library

Compare @count study programme

  • @title

    • Duration: @duration
Compare study programmes