Doctoral Theses

Art Alishani, MA (TalTech)

Topic: "Harnessing the potential of algorithms and intelligent technologies to build robust and human-centric public administrations: Cross-border digital public services"
Supervisors: Vincent Homburg and Mihkel Solvak

Kocha Changelia, MA (CEU)

Topic: Does Migration Matter? Ownership, Salience, and the Far-Right: How Issue Competition Drives Electoral Success in Western Europe
Supervisor: Piret Ehin

Radityo Dharmaputra, MA (Glasgow/ Tartu)

Topic: "Contemporary Russian Foreign Policy Discourse towards Asia: Assessing the Logic of Causality in the Discursive Structure of Identity"
Supervisor: Eiki Berg

Harry John Fennell, MA (Glasgow/Tartu/KIMEP)

Topic: Orthodoxy Beyond Autocracy: Religion, Solidarity, and Civil Society in the Romanov Empire, 1836–1917
Supervisor: Catherine Gibson

Ville Tapani Haapanen, MA (Tartu)

Topic: "Green parties in the globalization divide"
Supervisors: Liisa Talving and Zack Grant

Urmas Hõbepappel, MA (Lund)

Topic: "Changing History – Changing the Present? Postmodernist Historiography and Political Change in China"
Supervisor: Andrey Makarychev

Ronek Jäär, MSc (Stockholm)

Topic: “The Impact on Policy Outcomes: A Study of Leadership Dynamics in the European Parliament between 2004 to 2024”
Supervisor: Stefano Braghiroli

Simon Sebastian Manfred Kiecker, MA (Bari/Gent/Tartu)

Topic: “Transforming Growth Models: The Political Economy of Growth Model Restructuring Amid the Energy Crisis and Energy Transition in the Baltics and East Central Europe”
Supervisor: Edgars Eihmanis

Ibrahim Mammadli, MA (Tartu)

Topic: From Ballots to Bullets and Back: Explaining Strategic Shifts in Secessionist Movements
Supervisor: Shpend Kursani

Natalia Kovyliaeva, MA (CEU)

Topic: "Gaining Voice: Digital Feminist and Women's Movements in Post-Soviet Countries"
Supervisor: Katrin Uba and Andrey Makarychev

Karl Lembit Laane, MA (Tartu)

Topic: "The Crisis and Renewal of Procedural Democracy"
Supervisor: Eva Piirimäe

Thomas Michael Linsenmaier, MA (FU Berlin)

Topic: "The interplay between regional international societies – towards a European security architecture?”
Supervisor:

Akbar Mammadov, MA (Tartu)
Topic: "The Impact of Russia's War on Ukraine on the Quality of Democracy in Europe: A Study of Changes in Voter Behavior and Party Competition"
Supervisor: Piret Ehin

Aigerim Nurseitova, MA (Tartu)

Topic: “Navigating Imperial Shadows and Nationalist Waves: A Comparative Analysis of Ethnic Minority Identity Construction in Estonia and Kazakhstan”
Supervisor: Catherine Gibson

Oliver Rowe, MA (Geneva)

Topic: "Self-determination in Theory and Practice: The Reconfiguration of the 'Russian' Empire, 1914-1924"
Supervisor: Eva Piirimäe

Azniv Tadevosyan, MA (Tartu)

Topic: "Dissensus in Music and Cinema in Post-2012 Russia"
Supervisor: Catherine Gibson

Pirjo Turk, MA (Tartu)

Topic: "Applying Behavioral Insights to Decrease Carbon Footprint of Digitalization"
Supervisor: Leonore Riitsalu

Kristiina Vain, MA (Tartu)

Topic: The relationship between well-being and financial well-being in Central and Eastern Europe and Estonia
Supervisor: Leonore Riitsalu

Maili Vilson, MA (Tartu)

Topic: "The Europeanization of national foreign policy during the crisis in Ukraine"
Supervisor: Piret Ehin

Kristel Vits, MA (Tartu)

Topic: "De facto states and dependences: disentangling the interrelationship between de facto statehood and patronage"
Supervisor: Eiki Berg

Louis Wierenga, MA (Toronto)

Topic: "Ready for Battle: Threat narratives in the social media discourse of the radical right in Estonia and Latvia”
Supervisors: Vello Pettai and Andres Kasekamp

Izzet Yalin Youksel, MA (Tartu)

Topic: "Understanding De Facto, Small and Microstates: Elite Navigations at the Crossroads of International Patron-Client Relationships and Ontological Insecurity"
Supervisor: Eiki Berg

Dissertations defended at the Institute since 2006

Click on the link to access the full dissertation online.

Biao He, “When e-government meets bureaucracy: incentive structures shaping accessible service delivery in Chinese municipalities”, 2026.
Supervisor: Mihkel Solvak, Vincent Homburg

Tatiana Lupacheva, “Voice, visibility, and viability: connecting parliamentary speech, media coverage, and electoral performance of MPs in Estonia”, 2026.
Supervisor: Martin Mölder

Bogdan Romanov, “Explaining trust in Internet voting: institutional, technological, and contextual determinants”, 2026.
Supervisors: Mihkel Solvak and Margarita Zavadskaya

Sandra Hagelin, "Speaking borders, speaking Europe: entangled borders in governmental discourse across the Baltic and Nordic spaces", 2026.
Supervisors: Stefano Braghiroli and Thomas Diez

Stefan Dedovic, “European Union Digital Integration: Exploring the development and governance of cross-border digital public services", 2026.
Supervisors: Vincent Homburg, Mihkel Solvak and Joep Crompvoets

Logan Carmichael, "Cybersecurity governance responses in the Estonian digital governance model, 2007–2023", 2026.
Supervisor: Mihkel Solvak

Michael Cole, "The influence of Russian discourse on right-wing populist discourses in Ukraine and Georgia", 2025.
Supervisor: Andrey Makarychev

George Spencer Terry, "Demanding subjectivity: the radical right’s use of discursively empty referent objects within a post-foundational logics framework", 2025.
Supervisor: Andrey Makarychev

Butrint Berisha, "Exploring the role of civil society organisations in the foreign policy of contested states: An analysis of Kosovo, Palestine and Taiwan since 2010", 2025.
Supervisor: Eiki Berg

Eoin Micheál McNamara, "The risk society’s stabilisation failure? an analysis of NATO and the international security assistance force in Afghanistan", 2025.
Supervisors: Eiki Berg and Andres Kasekamp

Sanshiro Hosaka, "Nothing but Politics? Explaining the reproduction of Russian narratives about the events in Ukraine among Japanese scholars and intellectuals 2014–2019", 2025.
Supervisor: Andrey Makarychev

Ionut-Valentin Chiruta, "Triadic nexus relationships in an age of populism: interactions between Hungary, Romania and the Hungarian minority in Szeklerland“, 2023.
Supervisor: Vello Pettai

Lelde Luik, “Re-evaluating the Role of Representative Institutions in Radical Democratic Theory: Lessons from Democratic Identity Construction in Latvia”, 2023.
Supervisor: Viacheslav Morozov

Ivan Ulises Kentros Klyszcz, "How does violent conflict affect paradiplomacy? An exploratory research with cases from the North Caucasus.", 2022.
Supervisor: Eiki Berg

Andrii Nekoliak, "'Memory laws' and the patterns of collective memory regulation in Poland and Ukraine in 1989–2020: a comparative analysis", 2022.
Supervisor: Vello Pettai

Maksim Kulaev, "Trade unions, transformism and the survival of Russian authoritarianism", 2021.
Supervisor: Viatcheslav Morozov

Juhan Saharov, "From economic independence to political sovereignty: inventing “self-management” in the Estonian SSR", 2021.
Supervisor: Eva Piirimäe

Shota Kakabadze, "'The Caucasian chalk circle': Georgia’s self at the East/West nexus", 2020.
Supervisors: Andrey Makarychev and Maria Mälksoo

Lukas Pukelis, "Informal mutual oversight mechanisms in coalition governments: Insights from the Baltic states for theory building", 2018.
Supervisor: Vello Pettai

Ryhor Nizhnikau, "Externally induced institutional change in the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood: migration and environment reforms in Ukraine and Moldova in 2010–2015", 2017.
Supervisor: Viatcheslav Morozov

Kats Kivistik, "Relevance, content and effects of left-right identification in countries with different regime trajectories", 2017.
Supervisors: Piret Ehin and André Freire

Kristian Lau Nielsen, "Soft Power Europe: The Lesser Contradiction in Terms and Practices", 2016.
Supervisor: Eiki Berg

Birgit Poopuu, "Acting is everything: the European unioon and the process of becoming a peacebuilder", 2016.
Supervisor: Maria Mälksoo

Kristina Kallas, "Revisiting the triadic nexus: An analysis of the ethnopolitical interplay between Estonia, Russia and Estonian Russians", 2016.
Supervisor: Vello Pettai

Liisa Talving, "Economic conditions and incumbent support: when and how does the economy matter?", 2016.
Supervisors: Piret Ehin and Kristjan Vassil

Raul Toomla, "De facto states in the international system: Conditions for (in)formal engagement", 2014.
Supervisor: Eiki Berg

Andro Kitus, "A Post-Structuralist “Concept” of Legitimacy", 2014.
Supervisors: Vello Pettai and Lasse Thomassen

Mari-Liis Sööt, "Explaining corruption: Opportunities for corruption and institutional trust", 2013.
Supervisor: Tiina Randma-Liiv

Kadri Lühiste, "Regime Support in European Democracies", 2013.
Supervisor: Piret Ehin

Viljar Veebel, "The role and impact of positive conditionality in the EU pre-acession policy", 2012.
Supervisor: Eiki Berg

Alar Kilp, "Church authority in society, culture and politics after Communism", 2012.
Supervisor: Rein Taagepera

Maria Groeneveld, "The role of the state and society relationship in the foreign policy making process", 2012.
Supervisors: Andres Kasekamp and Alexander Astrov

Heiko Pääbo, "Potential of Collective Memory Based International Identity Conflicts in Post-Imperial Space: Comparison of Russian Master Narrative with Estonian, Ukrainian and Georgian Master Narratives", 2011.
Supervisor: Andres Kasekamp

Mihkel Solvak, "Private members’ bills in parliament - a comparative study of Finland and Estonia", 2011.
Supervisor: Vello Pettai

Holger Mölder, "Cooperative security dilemma – practicing the Hobbesian security culture in the Kantian security environment", 2010.
Supervisor: Eiki Berg

Allan Sikk, "Highways to power: New party success in three young democracies", 2006.
Supervisors: Rein Taagepera and Mogens N. Pedersen