Academic Engagement

As a seasoned peace and security specialist, I contribute actively to academic discourse and teaching. I offer insights grounded in field experience, addressing complex security issues such as conflict dynamics, development cooperation in fragile settings, and security sector reform.

I am a member of the UK Conflict Research Society and serve as a reviewer at the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research (HIIK), supporting the preparation of several conflict analyses that are being published yearly in the Conflict Barometer.

Publications:

Teaching & trainings on:

Conflict and Security Studies:

  • Systemic conflict analysis

  • Conflict, Security, and Development

  • Development cooperation in fragile and conflict-affected situations

  • Working in fragile and conflict-affected states

With a regional focus:

  • Russian Foreign Policy

  • Russian propaganda

  • War in Ukraine

  • Afghanistan

Invited lectures and presentations:

  • Presentation on Russian Foreign Policy, German Federal Police Academy, Germany, 2023 & 2024.

  • Presentations on the conflict in Eastern Ukraine at: the Department of War Studies, Southern Denmark University; at the Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg; at the University of Heidelberg; Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Berlin; at the Information Centre of the German Armed Forces, Strausberg, Germany, 2017 and 2018.

  • Presentation on “When global does not work, try a local ceasefire - Analysing Donbas de-escalation dynamics through localised ceasefire“ at the UK Conflict Research Society Annual Conference, 2017.

  • Workshop organiser “Development cooperation in fragile and conflict-affected situations”, German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), Young DGAP, Berlin, Germany, 2015.

  • Panel member „How to bridge the gap between security policy and theory“, at the German Atlantic Association, 2014.

  • Chair panel on „Transnational organised crime and state fragility“, at the Heidelberg Dialogue on International Security, 2014.

  • Guest speaker at the “Youth Security Policy-makers’ Forum” at the Federal Academy for Security Policy (BAKS), Berlin, Germany, 2013.

  • Co-organizer of a seminar “Working in fragile and conflict-affected states”, at the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation (FES), Berlin, 2012.