The Political Science degree programme at the University of Leiden has a strong academic reputation. You will be taught in an international classroom by experts in their field.

Whether you are eligible for admission to a Political Science master’s programme depends on your previous education and your command of the English language. The detailed entry requirements are listed below.

Leiden University offers its students a wide range of bachelor's, master's and minors that explore sustainability or climate. Here, you find an overview of those programmes in the academic year 2020-2021.

The one-year master in Southeast Asian Studies, a specialisation of Leiden University’s master in Asian Studies, offers a large and varied selection of subjects and the freedom to choose the areas on which you will focus.

Become an expert in migration and diversity law with a multi-disciplinary focus. As societies become increasingly diverse, this programme equips you to address the legal challenges posed by global migration, understanding the law in its political, societal, and historical context.

Understanding the complexities of world affairs requires an ability to think critically and to draw insights from a variety of perspectives, sources, and analytic frames. Leiden University’s Master of Arts in International Relations addresses these needs through distinctive humanities-based training…

Article by Leiden University political scientist Daniel Thomas about shifting norms for membership in international organisations.

How do parliamentarians secure their political future? Are their activities in the legislature connected to their place on the candidate list from one election to the next? Political scientists Tom Louwerse and Cynthia van Vonno examine the Dutch case. Their main finding is that speaking in the plenary…

Does a shared idea of the ‘public servant’ exist in Europe? Sager, Overeem, and others explore.

Is there a causal mechanism underlying the decision to attack another country when on the brink of war? If so, does this mechanism differ between regime-types? Political scientist Femke Bakker (Leiden University) addresses this question from a political psychological and comparative perspective and…

Political institution (like the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament) generate large bodies of text. These great amounts of text can impossibly be read by a researcher. Contrary to human researchers, computers are able to read thousands of documents a day. In this research project…

Voting Advice Applications represent popular election campaign tools in many countries, enabling voters to discover which party or candidate provides the best match with their political preferences. Political scientists Martin Rosema (University of Twente) and Tom Louwerse (Leiden University) examine…

‘Can he do it?’ Since the remarkable victory of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 Nigerian presidential elections, this has arguably been the most frequently posed question in Nigerian politics.

Studying International Relations and Organisations (IRO) you are building a foundation that will benefit you in your future career, whether as part of an international organisation, or as a journalist or consultant.

Find out how to apply for ResMA Politics, Culture and National Identities, 1789 to the Present at Leiden University by following our step-by step guide.

Discover history and present. With it's eventful history and politics, Russia is a country with a large influence on Europe and the world. In the Dutch-taught Bachelor's programme Russian Studies you will learn everything about the culture, language and politics of the largest country in the world and…

A number of European countries have started evacuating their citizens and there is a threat of military intervention by neighbouring countries: the situation in Niger is deteriorating rapidly. A military coup has thrown the country into turmoil, partly aided by social media.

The land question had a crucial formative influence on Mayo politics in the decades before the First World War and this book shows the part played by many prominent nationalist figures such as Davitt, O’Brien, Dillon and MacBride in shaping the political landscape in Mayo.

Eschatology played a central role in both politics and society throughout the early modern period. It inspired people to strive for social and political change, including sometimes by violent means, and prompted in return strong reactions against their religious activism.

In this book, Lydie Cabane examines the history of disaster management in South Africa.

The Afro-Asianism of the early Cold War has long remained buried under the narrative of Bandung, homogenising and subverting the different visions of post-colonial worldmaking that co-existed alongside the Bandung project.

Can we speak of a single Islamic discourse in fields like politics, militancy, economics, sustainable development, and the like, and what interaction does this Islamic though have with ‘Western’ thought?

Sevil Cakir-Kilincoglu defended her thesis on 18 December 2019

The European Council and the European Commission have a similar role in agenda setting. Both place issues on the EU agenda. However, these institutions have distinct designs. They have different political attributes (the European Council has considerably more political authority) and information-processing…

This book presents an understanding of the concept of Countering Violent Extremism from a critical terrorism studies perspective using case studies from different countries while examining the issues it raises.

A political-legal study of rights invocation by pollution victims in China and Indonesia

The Revolt in The Netherlands erupted in 1566 and tore apart the Low Countries. In Memory Wars in the Low Countries, 1566-1700 Jasper van der Steen explains how public memories of the Revolt in the Habsburg Netherlands in the South and the Dutch Republic in the North diverged and became the objects…

The threat of totalitarian domination; the rise of bureaucratic expertise; the resurgence of nationalisms and xenophobia; the claims of religion in secular societies; and the importance of robust legal and political institutions: these are among the main issues that mark—or specters that haunt—the 20th…

Imitation is, perhaps more than ever, constitutive of human originality.

This accessible textbook uses key documents embedded in a clear narrative to chart the post-Cold War rise and decline of transatlantic relations. It provides a novel interpretive framework by proposing that the three decades between 1989 and 2020 represent a distinct ‘transatlantic era’.

On February 20th, Gulnaz Sibgatullina succesfully defended her doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Gulnaz on this great result.

This collection of essays details the political life of one of the most prominent and gifted American statesmen of the twentieth century. From his early training in international law to his five terms in the US Senate, J. William Fulbright (1905--1995) had a profound influence on US foreign policy,…

It can no longer be taken for granted that EU member states are stable democracies. What should the EU do to protect democracy given increasing democratic backsliding in some member states?

This article offers a typology for organizational and institutional crisis management that portrays three sorts of crises: a crisis in an organization, a crisis to the organization and a crisis about the organization.

The minor Global Affairs is built on two pillars of International Relations: International Security and International Political Economy. This minor aims to provide students with the tools and knowledge to understand the most important global trends and challenges.

Did you know that after succesful completion of the minor American Studies, you can apply for the master’s programme North American Studies? Find out more below.

This specialised BSc degree programme offers you courses such as International Organisations and Actors in World Politics. Furthermore, you attend more general courses, such as International Politics, Comparative Politics, and Global History. You will also develop academic and professional skills: statistics,…

A Companion to Cities in the Greco-Roman World offers in-depth coverage of the most important topics in the study of Greek and Roman urbanism. Bringing together contributions by an international panel of experts, this comprehensive resource addresses traditional topics in the study of ancient cities,…

Op zoek naar een bacheloropleiding economie met een sterke focus op publiek beleid? Bij de bacheloropleiding Economie & Samenleving leer je in tegenstelling tot traditionele economieopleidingen om slim en strategisch te navigeren binnen de huidige complexe, juridische en politieke context.

Here is what you need to know about registering for your approved courses and exams.

The Washington Post reviews Nationalism by university lecturer Eric Storm. In this book, Storm explores how nation-states became the dominant political organizational form.

Engagement between Asia and Europe is increasing. If these continents want to build a lasting relationship, they need to understand each other better in the economic, socio-cultural, historical and legal arena. Researchers from Leiden have already contributed to the body of knowledge on past and present…

Dr. Mark Westmoreland (Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology) and Dr. Francesco Ragazzi (Institute of Political Science) have been awarded a Seed grant for their project, ‘Other “ways of knowing”: should we prepare for a post-textual turn in the social sciences?’. The grant amounts…

Thanks to fanatical lobbying various groups of citizens and traders had a lot of influence on the initial success of the Dutch colony in Brazil. This is the conclusion of Leiden PhD candidate Joris van den Tol, who defended his thesis on 20 March.