*Originally published in 2023 and preserved as part of our archive project. E-International Relations is free to read. We rely on reader support to make this possible.

Christiane Fröhlich is a senior research fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg, Germany. She is particularly interested in the intersection between forced migration, global environmental change, and socio-political upheaval, and in related questions of mobility and climate justice. Her regional focus is mainly on the Middle East (Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, Turkey), where she has conducted extensive field research. She is also engaged in cross-regional comparative projects, including the EU-funded consortium “Migration Governance and Asylum Crises (MAGYC)“, in which she led a work package on “Comparing Crises. Lessons from «migration crises» in North Africa, the Middle East and the Greater Horn of Africa.” Fröhlich holds a PhD from the Center for Conflict Studies at Marburg University.

Where do you see the most exciting research/debates happening in your field?

I am a peace and conflict researcher by training with a focus on environmental conflicts and have been working on the intersections between climate change, conflict, and displacement for about 20 years. What excites me most is the now (more or less) mainstream understanding that the most pressing questions of our time cannot be answered within disciplinary boundaries but need inter- and/or transdisciplinary research designs (and teams!). Also, it is exciting to see the growing movement to de-colonise my research fields, from which I have learned and am learning a lot.

How has the way you understand the world changed over time, and what (or who) prompted the most significant shifts in your thinking?

I started my path as a peace and conflict researcher twenty years ago with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where I looked at the role of water for and in a protracted conflict. I then moved to environmental (resource) conflicts more generally, to questions of climate and security, and to human mobility and its intersections with climate change and conflict. My regional focus is on the Southern Mediterranean, especially Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and (partly) Turkey. Throughout this work, my main driving force has been the people living in these different and more or less conflictive, repressive, and authoritarian settings. What has taught me most is talking to people who were born into protracted conflict, who had their lives upended........

© E-International