Research
An overview of research projects of the Sen Foundation
Publications
- Books EN
Fighting Violence and Poverty
The Digitization of Disinformation Campaigns
- Climate and Ecology
SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy – Policy Insights
January 2020Sen FoundationEnglishPolicy efforts currently fall short of all SDG 7 targets. Progress on clean cooking and renewable energy is lagging behind. Progress on electricity and energy efficiency is better, but more efforts are needed to meet the targets. Based on the latest IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 ̊C, energy-related emissions need to be reduced by 3.5% annually until 2050 and continue thereafter. The accelerated deployment of renewable energy, combined with increases in energy access and energy efficiency, can achieve 90% of the energy-related CO2 emissions reductions needed to reach the well-below 2 ̊C aim of the Paris Agreement
Download Article
SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy - Policy Insights, by Marijn van ReesSDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy – Current Status
January 2020Sen FoundationEnglishSDG 7 is set out to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.3 According to the UN, energy is central to nearly every major challenge the world faces today. For one thing, the problem of energy is closely connected to the problem of climate change as the energy sector represents by far the largest source of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions that are contributing to global warming.
Download Article
SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy - Current Status, by Marijn van Rees
- Economie en Financiën
Tax Evasion: Greece’s Jigsaw Puzzle
January 2014Bridging EuropeEnglishCentral aim of the paper is to analyze the reasons why paying taxes in Greece makes someone an “irrational” actor. it presents certain incentives that encourage tax evasion in the country. The first part will briefly document the level of tax evasion in Greece. The second part will list all the stimulants that have prompted the phenomenon of tax evasion in the country. Finally, the report will comment on the words of the former Greece’s Finance Minister, according to which “Greeks are not overtaxed”.
Download Article
Tax Evasion- Greece’s Jigsaw Puzzle
- Economy and Finances
Tax Evasion: Greece’s Jigsaw Puzzle
January 2014Bridging EuropeEnglishCentral aim of the paper is to analyze the reasons why paying taxes in Greece makes someone an “irrational” actor. it presents certain incentives that encourage tax evasion in the country. The first part will briefly document the level of tax evasion in Greece. The second part will list all the stimulants that have prompted the phenomenon of tax evasion in the country. Finally, the report will comment on the words of the former Greece’s Finance Minister, according to which “Greeks are not overtaxed”.
Download Article
Tax Evasion- Greece’s Jigsaw PuzzleOil Smuggling and the Greek Crisis
August 2014Bridging EuropeEnglishThe report describes how the fuel market works in Greece. It pays special attention to oil smuggling that has become dominant in the Greek economy. The report concludes with measures that should be taken to improve the income of Greece.
Download Article
Oil Smuggling and the Greek Crisis
- Education
Training students in research
- Events EN
Podcast #7: Israel Palestine Conflict
Podcast #6: Cyprus Conflict
- Making Sense EN
Hypersonic Weapons: Opportunities and Challenges for International Stability
1 mei 2023Over the past year, events like the use of the “Kinzhal” hypersonic missile by Russia in Ukraine and the USA’s successful test of an AGM-183 hypersonic missile in December have brought hypersonic missiles into the spotlight. With the war in Ukraine having its first anniversary and tensions over Taiwan continuously rising, questions regarding the new technology and its impact on international stability have become ever more pressing.
Europe’s security in NATO
24 January 2023Russia’s war against Ukraine shows once again that a large dictatorial state is the enemy of surrounding democracies and countries that aspire to freedom. Ukraine holding out against the Russian military might shows that support from North America, Great Britain and other Western states is essential for the preservation of freedom.
- Migration and Integration
Right-wing populism in Dutch border areas
May 2018University of LeidenEnglishIn the last decades, Europe was experiencing a considerable increase of right-wing populist parties. The maps of the electoral results show an intriguing puzzle. Radical right parties were more successful at the border constituencies
Download Article
Right-wing populism support in the Dutch national borders by Javid IbadExplaining Germany’s refugee policy change in 2015 in comparison with the Netherlands
April 2017University of LeidenEnglishThis research explores the extent to which Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) explains the difference in the asylum policy approaches of Germany and the Netherlands during 2015. Both countries had been conducting restrictive asylum policies during the past 20 years. However, in 2015, at the peak of the European refugee crisis, Germany abruptly transformed its approach to refugees into an open-door policy while the Netherlands continued with its restrictive approach. This led to a remarkable difference in the number of asylum seekers both countries received in 2015; a divergence which served as a point of departure for this research. This paper mainly focuses on the case study of Germany’s asylum policy.
Download Article
Explaining Germany’s refugee policy change in 2015
- Other
An Index for Measuring Wellbeing: GDP and Beyond
EnglishGross domestic product (GDP) is the most widely used measure of economic activity. In reality, however, things are more complicated. First, prices may not exist for some goods and services. This raises the question of how these services should be valued. Second, even where there are market prices, they may deviate from society’s underlying valuation. In particular, when the consumption or production of particular products affects society as a whole, the price that individuals pay for those products will differ from their value to society at large (Stiglitz, Sen & Fitoussi: 2009). Emphasizing the required shift from measuring economic production to measuring people’s wellbeing, a renewed framework for measuring a country’s performance is needed. This paper proposes an alternative framework for measurement.
Download Article
An Index for Measuring Wellbeing: GDP and BeyondThe Singaporean Development Model
2014Sen FoundationEnglishSingapore gained full independence in 1965. This young state propelled itself from a considerably poor state with few natural resources into one of the most efficient and rich states on the globe. A centre of industry and education, Singapore can be seen by many as a role model for development. Can Singapore’s success be replicated elsewhere and be used as a new framework for developing countries to employ?
Download Article
The Singaporean Development Model
- Partners EN
Leiden University
The Hague University of Applied Sciences
- Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention
Building Peace
EnglishThis file contains the content from the Building Peace Symposium.
Download Article
Building Peace
Conflict Resolution Vs Conflict Transformation
January 2014Bridging EuropeEnglishThis paper brings up a theoretical debate on conflict resolution and conflict transformation approaches and explains why the second one is deemed more useful in understanding conflicts.
Download Article
Conflict Resolution Vs Conflict Transformation
- Projects EN
Refugee Project
Ukraine Project
- Publications EN
SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy – Policy Insights
January 2020Sen FoundationEnglishPolicy efforts currently fall short of all SDG 7 targets. Progress on clean cooking and renewable energy is lagging behind. Progress on electricity and energy efficiency is better, but more efforts are needed to meet the targets. Based on the latest IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 ̊C, energy-related emissions need to be reduced by 3.5% annually until 2050 and continue thereafter. The accelerated deployment of renewable energy, combined with increases in energy access and energy efficiency, can achieve 90% of the energy-related CO2 emissions reductions needed to reach the well-below 2 ̊C aim of the Paris Agreement
Download Article
SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy - Policy Insights, by Marijn van ReesSDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy – Current Status
January 2020Sen FoundationEnglishSDG 7 is set out to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.3 According to the UN, energy is central to nearly every major challenge the world faces today. For one thing, the problem of energy is closely connected to the problem of climate change as the energy sector represents by far the largest source of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions that are contributing to global warming.
Download Article
SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy - Current Status, by Marijn van Rees
- Speeches and (Media) Articles
Speech on the Role of Peace in Advancing Achievement of SDGs
EnglishConsidering the above context, the International Institute of Governance & Leadership, organized the 2nd Global Governance & Leadership Forum in India on 10th September 2018 at Hotel Taj Mahal Palace, Colaba Mumbai. The theme of the Forum was appropriately chosen to be the ‘Challenges in Global Governance – Collective Governance of the Planet’. Here, our Director and Former Defence Minister of Netherlands & Member of the Global Board of IIGL, Joris Voorhoeve, being an expert on Peace, as he was co-chair of global partnership for the prevention of armed conflict, which is a ‘UN Peace Keeping’ initiative, shared his thoughts on the ‘Role of Peace in advancing achievement of SDGs’.
Download Article
Speech on the Role of Peace in Advancing Achievement of SDGs - Joris VoorhoeveEurope’s past and the global future
November 2010When Edmund Burke declared in his Reflections on the Revolution in France, “the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever,” his obituarial note gave very little hint that Europe was, right at that time – in the eighteenth century – ushering in a transformative phase in world history. The European Enlightenment not only changed the institutional structures governing societies and states, it was a gigantic influence in establishing the basic understanding that public reasoning is essential for making societies better. Social improvement through systematic reasoning was a prominent component of the intellectual animation of the European Enlightenment. I will argue that the role of Europe in our troubled world today can be more sure-footed as well as more constructive if greater use is made of that heritage. What emerged firmly in eighteenth century Europe, riding on the back of the European Renaissance earlier, remains deeply relevant and constructive today.
Download Article
Europe's past and the global future
- Team EN
Joris Voorhoeve
Ilia Barboutev
Books
Click here to see all the books
Fighting Violence and Poverty
April 15, 2021
Fighting Poverty and Violence analyzes what is needed to abolish the worst forms of human deprivation. Based on many international studies about the UN Sustainable Development Goals, it concludes that only two percent of world income is needed to provide all human beings with safe drinking water, sanitation, food, basic education, and simple health care. The poorest people also incur the largest numbers of victims due to wars, disasters, and pandemics. This book contains practical suggestions for more effective civic and political action to reach the universal goal of well-being in peace. Watch the livestream of the Book Launch here!
Can’t wait to read it? Buy it here.
The Digitization of Disinformation Campaigns
2021
How modern disinformation campaigns – whose methods and composition changed through the information revolution between 1990 und 2009 – can be countered more effectivelyThe information revolution changed the way state-organized disinformation campaigns are conducted. Spreading various forms of propaganda, confusing half-thruths and pure falsehoods have accelerated, and social media made it possible to reach an increasing number of people targeted, in an ever-shorter news cycle. In the past disinformation actors mostly tried to persuade an audience of a single made-up story. Nowadays in the so-called post-truth era, disinformation actors rather attempt to dissuade an audience of the evidence-based story by disseminating an unending number of alternative narratives. At the core of this research lays the question how to deal with disinformation in digitized society.
Curious? Buy it here.
