The SFB 700  “Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood: New Modes of Governance?” is a Collaborative Research Center funded by the German Research Foundation - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) over a time span of twelve years. Five institutions support the research center: the Freie Universität Berlin, the University of Potsdam, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), as well as the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA). Furthermore, the SFB 700 launched a project in cooperation with the German Federal Foreign Office (AA) aiming at a mutual exchange of knowledge in the context of foreign affairs.

Some 60 scholars are involved, most of them political scientists, historians, and legal scholars. By working together, they are expanding the borders of their respective institutions to discuss global questions regarding governance in areas in which state authority is limited or completely lacking. In 17 individual research projects, the specific research objectives are to be realized, which are evaluated every four years by the DFG in order to ensure long-term quality of the work.

A general introduction can be downloaded here.