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 2020. It investigates fragility as a ‘combination of exposure to risk and insufficient coping capacity of the state, systems and/or communities to manage, absorb or mitigate those risks. Fragility can lead to negative outcomes including violence, poverty, inequality, displacement, and environmental and political degradation.’ It also ‘examines fragility as a story in two parts: the  global state of fragility that existed before COVID-19, and the dramatic impact the pandemic is having on that landscape.’ It explores thinking and practice on fragility to propose new ideas on human capital analysis and conflict prevention.’¹⁰

The report calls for the development of ‘durable partnerships and coordinated approaches at multiple levels based on trust, conflict sensitivity and risk-sharing.’ […] ‘Actors must be capable of responding to a broad range of challenges that shape fragile contexts if sustainable outcomes are to be achieved.’¹¹

The Bertelsmann Stiftung’s ‘BTI Transformation Index’ provides three sub-indices: ‘Political Transformation’, ‘Economic Transformation’ and ‘Governance’. 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 to this there are comprehensive ‘Country Reports’ on the various countries that can be compiled in a differentiated way on the basis of the indicators given above. The country reports give 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 ‘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 an additional corruption index for 199 countries and regions, based on 28 indicators. The ‘Global Corruption Index’ combines two indices: corruption and white collar crime.

Beyond the reference sources provided by DLR 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); die Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung (HSS); die 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’¹² 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’; ‘instrumentalization’ (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 cooperation. It raises awareness by offering clearly stated assessments of existing risks and proposes 74 strategies and instruments to reflect on cooperation projects.