The International Politics and Regional Studies working area examines, among other things, knowledge communities and knowledge diffusion as well as sustainable governance strategies in the European Union and its international relationships. A research project of the European Integration working area examines the process of European Integration with a special focus on peace, prosperity, and stability. Other key topics of the department include the transformation of states between democratization and authoritarianism, especially in the Near East, political gender studies, and peace and conflict studies. At the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, the Environmental Ethnology working group researches local environmental knowledge with a focus on plants and explores how to reconcile global food and (ecological) health of local ecosystems. In doing so, it collaborates, i.e., with the Botanical Garden Berlin. Catastrophe Research examines the consequences of global environmental change, especially climate change, governance strategies, as well as vulnerability and resilience research.

Environmental Policy Research Center

The Environmental Policy Research Center (FFU) at the Otto-Suhr-Department of Politics specializes in comparative and international environmental policy research. Its expertise is in global environmental questions, climate change and energy, strategies of sustainable development, and biodiversity. From a social science perspective, the role of actors, structures, processes, and strategies as well as environmental politics at the international, national, and communal levels are examined. FFU researches pioneer states in political diffusion, ecological modernization and innovation in the economy and society, and political integration and evaluation. Energy politics research at FFU focuses on the topics of renewable energies and energy efficiency. FFU advises national and international governments and institutions and collaborates with numerous universities, research institutes, and NGOs in Europe, Asia, and North and South America.

Climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation are now closely linked. At the Disaster Research Unit of the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, a social approach is used to investigate how social and ecological disasters arise and their impact, and how the resilience of our ecosystems and different population groups can be improved in this regard. Founded and funded by the German Weather Service and accompanied by Freie Universität Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development as research partners, WEXICOM, for example, aims to explore the social dimension of severe weather risks. The aim is to improve the communication of severe weather warnings and risks and to protect people more effectively.