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Dr Thomas Conzelmann, Prof. (T.)

Research profile

My research focuses on the exertion of leverage in international and EU politics through various Instruments, including soft instruments such as peer reviews among states , and hard instruments such as economic coercion measures. I also research the ‘geo-economic turn’ in global affairs and the corresponding policies of the EU. My research is published, among others, in Cooperation and Conflict, Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of European Integration, and Regulation and Governance.

Research projects

The softening and hardening of borders (LIMES) (2020-2025) 

I am coordinator (with Sophie Vanhoonacker) of a doctoral network of 13 PhD researchers at UM, funded by the European Commission through its COFUND programme.

LIMES - Cross-border research

Beyond the carrot and the stick: What makes peer reviews among states authoritative instruments of global governance? (2013-2019)

The project focused on the authority of peer reviewing procedures among states as an increasingly widely used, yet poorly understood instrument of global governance. It looked at peer reviews in different international organisations (The UN family, the WTO, the OECD and the Council of Europe) and in different policy areas (anti-corruption, human rights, economic and trade policies). http://peer-reviews.info

 

PhD Supervision

PhD candidates I am currently supervising as first promotor or as co-promotor:

  • Francky Rétice Ayosso: The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) in Practice: Understanding Policy Responses in Key Partner Economies (started in 2025, with Francesca Colli)
  • Sophie Pornschlegel:  How has European sovereignty evolved amidst the EU’s geopolitical shifts: An analysis of a contested concept in EU policy-making (started in 2025, with Sophie Vanhoonacker)
  • Hylke de Sauvage Nolting: Explaining changing Dutch policy positions to EU foreign economic policy in a geo-economic era (started in 2024, with Aneta Spendzharova)


PhD candidates who graduated under my (co-)supervision:

 

Selected research grants:

  • ‘The Softening and Hardening of Borders’; European Commission COFUND scheme (with Sophie Vanhoonacker); € 1.400.000,-
  • Establishment and Founding Director of the Centre for European Research in Maastricht (CERiM) ; Maastricht University (with 9 other professors from Maastricht University); € 1.019.000,-

  • (2013) "No Carrots, No Sticks: How do Peer Reviews among States acquire authority in Global Governance" (NWO Innovative Research Grant VIDI); € 800.000,-  

     


 

 

 

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