Lutz F. Krebs is a senior lecturer and political scientist with a focus on international relations and conflict research.
Between 2017 and 2023, Krebs contributed to the development of the new, strongly interdisciplinary B.Sc. in Global Studies offered collaboratively by all faculties of Maastricht University. He took a leading role in the successful macro-efficiency application in 2018 and initial accreditation in 2019, and served as founding program director for four years. Between 2010 and 2018, Krebs served as the education director for the M.Sc. program in Public Policy and Human Development. He led the conversion of this program into one of the first master degrees offered by the United Nations University, contributed to the launch of several specialization tracks and led the effort for reaccreditation as a joint degree with Maastricht University. Having completed graduate degrees in economics, political science and humanitarian assistance, Krebs’ studies focus on the impact of democratization processes on the likelihood of civil-war onset in ethnically heterogeneous countries as part of the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research "Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century". He collaborated in the development of a new coding method for democratization periods and contributed to the launch of the peer-reviewed journal Living Reviews in Democracy. For his dissertation at ETH Zurich, Krebs investigated the influence of political leaders on the likelihood of civil-war onset during democratization phases, challenging the theory of "elite manipulation" on the grounds that the theorized extensive influence of political leaders is unrealistic. Krebs also published an edited volume of student studies on the functioning of actors in the global civil society.