Education and professional career

• Studies in Political Science and Economics at the Universities of Hannover, Paris (Instiut d’Etdues Politiques), Hamburg and London (London School of Economics), Diploma in Political Science at the University of Hamburg
• 1986 Master in Public Administration (M.P.A.) Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., USA
• 1987 Dr. rer. pol. Hamburg
• 1988 – 1993 Member of the research and teaching staff at the Free University Berlin, Otto-Suhr-Institute of Political Science
• 1993 – 1994 Thyssen and Kennedy Fellow at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., USA
• 1994 - 1996 Fellow of the German Research Foundation (DFG)
• Lecturer in Political Science at Stanford University, Stanford Study Center in Berlin
• 1998 Habilitation at the University of Hamburg
• 1999 - 2000 Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies (Wissenschaftskolleg) Berlin
• 2000 – 2002 Director of the Institute for African Studies, Hamburg
• 2001 full tenure professorship at the University of Hamburg, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, Chair in International Relations
• 2006 to present Vice-President of the Hamburg Academy of Sciences