Karim Kniou

Dr. Karim Kniou serves as Associate Professor in International Political Economy and Governance at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University Rotterdam. He recently assumed the role of scientific director for the CERES Research School for International Development and functions as ISS academic coordinator for the Erasmus Mundus MA in Public Policy (MAPP). His editorial roles include Associate Editor for the Journal of Critical Realism and former associate managing editor of European Political Science Review (2014-2019).

Dr. Kniou's research integrates four interconnected tracks examining:

• Neoliberalization processes within Euro-Mediterranean relations and institutional failures in trade, regionalism, and democracy promotion
• Political economy of crises and (un/de)learning practices across different management tiers
• Immanent Causality Morphogenetic Approach (ICMA) connecting Archer's structure-agency analysis with Spinoza's philosophy
• Intersections between crisis political economy and social ontology, particularly regarding Mediterranean gas extraction

His scholarly output demonstrates expertise across critical realism, morphogenetic regulation theory, and neoliberal ontology. The publications reveal consistent focus on conceptual mapping of political-economic phenomena, theoretical integration across philosophical frameworks, and empirical applications to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern contexts.

As academic coordinator for Mundus MAPP, Dr. Kniou teaches Contemporary Capitalism and Governance, Thinking about Governance and Institutions, Politics of Global Development, and Power, Politics and Development. His supervision interests span EU/Mediterranean relations, comparative capitalisms, crisis management, institutional analysis of public policy, Middle Eastern/Lebanese politics, Critical Realism, and social ontology.

Dr. Kniou actively contributes to academic discourse through his editorial work and leadership roles in research networks, maintaining strong connections between theoretical innovation and policy-relevant scholarship in international development contexts.