Constitutional and sociopolitical framework

The OECD’s States of Fragility Report provides a reference index on constitutional and sociopolitical frameworks and the sub-criteria as broken down above. Between eight and twelve indicators are analysed and triangulated for each of the following five dimensions: economics, environment, politics, security and society. The last OECD report was published in September 2022. It examines global fragility and its impacts on stability and development. Currently, 1.9 billion people are living in the 60 contexts which are identified as fragile according to the report. This group of people comprises 24% of the world’s population and 73% of the world’s poorest people. The main focus of the OECD analysis is on the complex challenges which have been intensified by COVID-19, climate change and Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The document underlines the need for multidimensional approaches to manage fragility and calls for collective actions to address the causes of instability and promote sustainable development.²

The Bertelsmann Stiftung’s ‘BTI Transformation Index’ provides three sub-indices: the ‘Political Transformation Index’, the ‘Economic Transformation Index’ and the ‘Governance Index’. Each of the three dimensions can be compared globally on the basis of selected indicators in the form of a world map visualisation. In addition, comprehensive ‘Country Reports’ on the various countries are available which can be compiled in a differentiated way based of the indicators given above. The country reports provide an overview of the situation and developments in a given region.

The standard reference for corruption indices is the Transparency International organisation. Transparency International publishes the Global Corruption Report: Education for the field of education, Part 3 of which explicitly deals with transparency and integrity in higher education. That said, the most recent report is from 2013 and has not been updated since. The Global Corruption Index produced by Global Risk Profile (GRP), a Swiss company, offers another corruption index for 199 countries and regions, composed of 28 indicators. The Global Corruption Index combines two indices: corruption and white collar crime.

Beyond the reference sources provided by DLR under Criterion 2 and the Kooperation international website, it is at this point worth recommending other more broad-based country profiles, conflict and policy analysis that are helpful points of reference. The studies compiled by the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik SWP (German Institute for International and Security Affairs) and the largest non-university information centre for comparative regional studies, the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) deserve special mention at this point.
The other institutions given above – such as the International Crisis Group and the UCPD – offer other functionality beyond maps that includes political analysis of selected priority issues. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Federal Agency for Civic Education offer a wide range of information about countries and topics.
Various national political foundations and their offices abroad also provide political analysis and spotlight reports on current political issues: the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES); the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS); the Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung (HSS); the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNS); the Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBS) and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS).

Freedom House is an international non-governmental organisation that campaigns to defend human rights and promote democratic change. Its indices focus on political rights and civil liberties. Freedom House’s analysis is focused on 13 key issues, including ‘authoritarian reach’, ‘media freedom’, ‘government accountability and transparency’, ‘strengthening civil society’ and ‘freedom of expression’. Based on this analysis, information is fed into the Freedom House Index. A world map allows users to compare the status of democracies and freedom of internet access.

The Freedom House Index also captures changes and trends. The various trends and individual indicators are described in detail in country profiles. In addition, Freedom House Policy Recommendations make policy recommendations on selected topics and regional points of conflict.

The ‘Risky Business. Rethinking Research Cooperation and Exchange with Non-Democracies. Strategies for Foundations, Universities, Civil Society Organizations, and Think Tanks’³ study, which had been commissioned by Stiftung Mercator, was published on the website of the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in October 2020. In this study, human rights, academic freedom, research integrity and diversity are defined as fundamental values in collaborations, which are described as a basis for clarifying a participant’s goals in collaborations.

It also differentiates between eight aspects for risks in cooperation projects: ‘dependence’ (on financial influence on academic systems); ‘(self-)censorship’; ‘instrumentalisation’ (here in the sense of non-democracies using networks to legitimise their narratives and actions in liberal democracies); ‘repression’; ‘involuntary technology transfer and espionage’; ‘dual- use’; ‘path dependence’ (which in this case refers to the challenge of withdrawing from long-established cooperation programmes); and ‘indiscriminate targeting’. The study summarises the current state of affairs concerning challenges facing international academic cooperations. It raises awareness by offering clearly stated assessments of existing risks and proposes 74 activities to support reflection on cooperation projects.