Political science research at the LAI contributes to opening the discipline to new questions and interdisciplinary perspectives. Political science at the LAI is involved in the SCRIPTS Cluster of Excellence and in LAI research networks (trAndeS, Merian International Center for Humanities and Social Sciences Conviviality in Unequal Societies: Perspectives from Latin America and Temporalities of Future). In addition, individual research projects delve deeper into certain topics (transnational analysis of business elite networks in Latin America; forced labor, violence, and inequalities).

Political science research at the Institute for Latin American Studies (LAI) is integrated into the Department of Political and Social Sciences of Freie Universität Berlin and cooperates with national and international, university and non-university partner institutions. The national partners are, among others, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), the Ibero-American Institute of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (IAI), the German Development Institute (GDI) and the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA). International partners include Colegio de México,Pontífica Universidad Católica del Perú, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, University of Hull, and Columbia University.