An agency of the EU

Research Fellows

The Institute’s research team is made up of nine permanent Research Fellows. Their work is complemented by an extensive network of external researchers who contribute to the Institute’s research activities on an ad hoc basis.

Research Fellows must be nationals of an EU Member State and they spend from three to five years at the Institute.

Esra Bulut Aymat

Politics and conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean/Middle East.

Nicola Casarini

EU-China and EU-East Asia relations, Chinese foreign policy, East Asia's security, and global governance. 

Damien Helly

Conflict prevention and crisis management, and linkages between security, development and governance, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Rouzbeh Parsi

Politics and governance in Iran, Iraq and the Persian Gulf.

Patryk Pawlak

EU-US relations and US domestic and foreign policies. He also deals with EU Justice and Home Affairs, with particular regard to its external dimension, border management and data protection. 

Luis Peral

EU contribution to multilateralism and in particular to the international security system, EU-Asia relations with a focus on India, and international responses to conflict situations such as that of Afghanistan. 

Jean Pascal Zanders

Disarmament and non-proliferation. 

Visiting Fellows

Mario Hirsch - Senior Visiting Fellow

Mario Hirsch is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the EU Institute for Security Studies. Before joining the EUISS, he was the Director of the Institut Pierre Werner. Previously, he acted as an adviser to key politicians and was also involved in the launch of the Astra satellite system. In parallel, he was a lecturer at Sciences Po in Strasbourg, and has published widely on European affairs, small states, neo-corporatism and communications policy. He is now working on the soft power dimensions of European foreign policies.

Jacques Rupnik - Associate Research Fellow

Jacques Rupnik is an Associate Research Fellow at the EU Institute for Security Studies. His specialist areas include: the politics of the Balkans, East-Central Europe and the EU’s neighbourhood policies. He was Executive Director of the International Commission on the Balkans and member of the International Commission on Kosovo. He coordinates the EUISS project on the EU and the Balkans.

Tova Norlén - TAPIR Fellow

Tova Norlén is a visiting TAPIR fellow at the EU Institute for Security Studies, working on issues relating to international security, Middle East/Israel, conflict management and U.S foreign policy. She has a Ph.D. in international relations and conflict management from the Johns Hopkins University School of International Studies in Washington D.C, and has worked for several years teaching International relations and related subjects in Southern California. During the next two stages of her fellowship she will spend time at the CSS in Zurich and RAND in Washington D.C.