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Publications by Julian Lehmann
All Issue Areas
Global Order
Humanitarian Action
Migration
M&E
Peace & Security
Rights & Democracy
Data & Tech Politics
Years
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Commentary 02 Oct 2019
Fluchtursachen mindern: Was nicht weh tut, ist nicht wirksam
Die Bundesregierung beruft eine Expertenkommission zu Fluchtursachen – Zeit, auch unangenehme Abwägungen in die öffentliche Debatte zu tragen.… -
Commentary 17 May 2018
Meisterhafte Ankündigungen
Kaum hatte Horst Seehofer Mitte März sein neues Büro als Innenminister bezogen, kündigte er bei einem Glas Frischmilch erst einen „Masterplan“ für höhere Abschiebungszahlen an und erklärte dann, „der Islam“ gehöre nicht zu Deutschland. Beides gehört zusammen, denn der Zweiklang fasst nicht nur die… -
Study 28 Nov 2017
Reinforcing Border Control: What’s at Stake for Migrants?
Migration has become an issue that can decide elections. As a result, the policy of the day is to try to limit the irregular movement of people, a trend of particular prominence in Europe. As such, European governments are increasingly seeking to establish control over routes abroad that see… -
Study 09 Jan 2017
What’s After the “Crisis”? Scenarios for EU Refugee Policy Post-2016
Takeaways from a Transnational European Discussion Growing numbers of asylum seekers have made short-term crisis management the focus of refugee policy in the European Union. How asylum policy might develop in the medium and long term, however, has been largely overlooked. And yet that question… -
Commentary 20 Sep 2016
How to Ensure a Global Refugee Response
Just hours after the United Nations concluded its refugee summit, breaking news on the displaced could hardly be more sobering. A UN aid convoy in Syria was bombed, leaving 12 aid workers dead; Kenya is closings the world's largest refugee camp in Dadaab, pressuring refugees to return to Somalia;… -
Study 18 Jun 2016
Excuse Me, What’s the Fastest Way Out of Dublin?
The Dublin Regulation, which is the cornerstone of the Common European Asylum System, is crumbling. The law, directly applicable in all European Union states, seeks to achieve a system in which asylum seekers submit only one application for asylum in one member state. In May 2016, the EU Commission… -
Study 16 May 2016
#Refugeecrisis: Who’s Talking, and About What?
Why Map Civil Society Actors in EU Refugee Policy? After a decade of relatively steady numbers of asylum applications, there was a significant increase in people seeking asylum in the European Union in 2015. Since then, media outlets and civil society actors have described the situation unfolding… -
Commentary 13 May 2016
The Challenges of Building Capacities for Refugee Protection
By Sarah Deardorff Miller, Julian LehmannUNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) frequently seeks to develop protection capacity of refugee-hosting states, for example through creating or adapting national legal frameworks; assistance in registration and status determination; knowledge transfer in government institutions; support of civil society… -
Commentary 07 Mar 2016
Auf Wiedersehen, Refugee Law
The results of the European Union summit on March 7 with Turkey will be decisive for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s proposed “European-Turkish solution” to the refugee crisis. Ahead of the summit, observers expected that the Turkish government would agree to take back asylum seekers from Greece.… -
Commentary 22 Dec 2015
Fleeing Into Crisis: Looking Back On the European “Refugee Crisis” of 2015
In 2015, the number of asylum applications to the European Union reached an all-time high. But numbers alone do not explain why the events of 2015 were commonly referred to as a refugee (or migrant) “crisis.” It is important to contextualize the high number of entries against an EU that is not only… -
Commentary 21 Dec 2015
Flucht in die Krise – Ein Rückblick auf die EU-„Flüchtlingskrise“ 2015
Das Jahr 2015 markiert den vorläufigen Höhepunkt des Trends steigender Asylanträge in der Europäischen Union. Nach Angaben des europäischen Statistikamts ersuchten allein in der ersten Jahreshälfte rund 400000 Menschen internationalen Schutz in der EU; eine Steigerung von etwa 85 Prozent gegenüber… -
Study 14 Dec 2015
Can Shaming Promote Human Rights?
Publicity in Human Rights Foreign Policy Executive Summary NGOs and states alike can publicly criticize repressive governments. Such “shaming” serves to attract attention to actions perceived as wrongful. Shaming seeks to increase the costs for offenders and thus acts as a deterrence mechanism. In… -
Commentary 02 Nov 2015
Up the Creek Without the Law: What is at Stake in Refugee Responsibility Sharing?
Refugee law has an infamous built-in dichotomy. Its powerful non-refoulement principle means refugees shall not be returned to their home countries or to places where they would be at risk of being returned home. Yet, refugee law does not oblige securing safe direct access from a refugee’s country… -
Book 01 Sep 2015
Shipwreck: The Failure of European Refugee Policy
What is wrong with refugee policy in Europe? Ten years ago, European heads of state agreed to create a “Common European Asylum System” establishing minimum standards and harmonizing them across Europe. In many ways, the European Union has been a driver of new and progressive laws. But too often has… -
Commentary 27 Jun 2015
Refugee Policy: Anything Is Better Than the Status Quo
Lack of knowledge is not the issue. Through numerous eyewitness accounts, as well as audio and video recordings, the public has learned about the dramatic crossings of the Mediterranean, about the miserable drownings, about the coffins – small and large. But the European Union still fails to handle… -
Commentary 22 Jun 2015
The Use of Force Against People Smugglers: Conflicts with Refugee Law and Human Rights Law
On 18 May, EU ministers agreed on a military operation (EU NAVFOR Med) that could comprise, in its final phase, the boarding, seizure and destruction of suspected migrant smuggling vessels, subject to approval by the UN Security Council. Negotiations before the Security Council appear to have halted… -
Commentary 22 Jun 2015
Alles ist besser als der Status quo
An Wissen mangelt es nicht. Täglich erfährt die Öffentlichkeit von der Überfahrt Asylsuchender über das Mittelmeer, von geglückten und gescheiterten Versuchen, die Landgrenze der EU zu überqueren, von Menschen, die jämmerlich ertrinken. Trotzdem sind wir noch nicht zu einem vernünftigen Umgang mit… -
Book chapter 09 Jun 2015
When Can Refugees Claim Their Home States Failed to Protect Them?
Since 2004, when an EU directive called the Qualification Directive established criteria to determine refugee status, EU member states can no longer restrict refugee status to people fleeing harm caused by nation-states. However, when escaping harm caused by non-state actors, asylum seekers will be… -
Commentary 09 Mar 2015
Of Shepherds and Sheepdogs
It is not without irony that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) decided an asylum case involving a former US army soldier with the surname “Shepherd” at the same time US pop culture celebrates a film built around a metaphor of protecting sheep. In Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper, we… -
Commentary 24 Dec 2014
Hundred Years Between the Poles: In the Law of War, Politics is the Mediator
In the fall of 1914, the great war that we now call the First World War had been ongoing for only months, but the troops of Imperial Germany had already cut loose: Within weeks, they had shot 850 civilians in neutral Belgium, burned more than 400 houses and used hundreds of civilians as human…