Thomas Richter

Thomas Richter is a leading academic and Professor at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), where he serves as Lead Research Fellow and Head of the Research Programme "Accountability and Participation". His work focuses on the institutional and material determinants of authoritarian rule, executive personalization, and global political economy, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa region.

• Education: PhD in Political Science (summa cum laude) at the University of Bremen (2008); studies at Eberhard-Karls University Tuebingen and University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

His research explores the interplay of rentier statehood and economic reforms, civil society under authoritarian regimes, and shrinking civic spaces. Recent projects include the Merian Center for Advanced Studies in the Maghreb (MECAM) and the Monitoring System and Transfer Platform Radicalisation (MOTRA), funded by BMBF and DFG. Richter has published extensively on topics such as anti-Semitism, executive power dynamics, and public opinion on military service in Germany.

He has received notable awards, including the Lijphart/Przeworski/Verba Data Set Award (2017) and the Gero Erdmann-Preis für vergleichende Area-Forschung (2022). His collaborative work spans institutions like the WZB Berlin and Université de Tunis. Richter is also a co-editor of the Perspectives on the Maghreb series with Amsterdam University Press.