PhD in Political Science

The ERC Starting Grant project “Empire of Solidarities: A Connected History of Private Charity Across a Decentred Romanov Empire, 1855–1914” (EMPSOLID), invites applicants for a fully-funded 4-year PhD position at the University of Tartu.

About EMPSOLID
By the late nineteenth century, the Romanov Empire stretched half-way across the globe, turning inhabitants of the vast territory spanning today’s Tallinn to Vladivostok into subjects of the same empire. Yet, how far did inhabitants’ horizons of sympathy extend? Did people living at opposite ends of the empire feel any emotional connection or impulse to help one another in times of need? If so, how were these solidarities expressed and enacted? EMPSOLID analyses the formation and development of horizontal connections between different regions of the Romanov Empire through a focus on intra-imperial charity, philanthropy, and aid. The project investigates how charity became a means of expressing solidarity and was shaped by — and also sometimes transcended — confessional and ethnolinguistic divides. The project’s decentring approach contributes to critical approaches to East European and Eurasian studies and imperial history by intensifying cross-regional exchanges between scholars working on different regions of the Romanov Empire (Baltic Studies, Ukrainian Studies, Caucasus Studies, Central Asian Studies etc.) and probing new ways of thinking about the empire based on horizontal entanglements between its border regions.

PhD project scope

The research undertaken as part of the PhD project will focus on the history of ideas and theories of solidarity in the Romanov Empire, tracing how concepts were defined, debated, and transformed over the long nineteenth century. Proposals should address some of the following themes:

• How ideas such as solidarity, altruism, philanthropy, humanitarianism, collective action, mutual aid, or cooperativism were conceptualised and discussed in different intellectual and political circles
• The role of key thinkers, reformers, and activists in shaping these ideas within imperial, national, and transnational contexts
• The influence of European political thought (e.g., socialism, liberalism, conservatism, anarchism, nationalism) on the development of solidarity-based movements within the Romanov Empire
• Religious ideas, institutional practices, and networks of collective welfare (Orthodox, Lutheran, Islamic, Jewish, and others)
• How different actors – such as imperial officials, intellectuals, revolutionaries, national activists, religious leaders, or philanthropists – mobilized ideas of solidarity for political, social, or cultural ends
• The politicization of solidarity in the context of empire and nation-building, including the intersections between imperial, national, religious, and class-based solidarities

Applicants should specify their chosen case study within their proposal, outline a list of potential sources, and clearly articulate how their research will address the intra-imperial dimensions of the topic (ideally, bringing two or more regions of the empire together). Proficiency in the relevant language(s) for the case study is expected.

Responsibilities
In addition to fulfilling the general requirements for doctoral studies at the University of Tartu, the PhD researcher will:

• Participate in regular EMPSOLID team meetings (in person or via Zoom)
• Assist in organising workshops, lectures, and in-person events
• Contribute data and assist the PI with the management of the project database of intra-imperial charitable initiatives
• Produce maps relevant to the larger project using GIS (training provided)

Main supervisor: Dr Catherine Gibson
Associate Professor of East European Studies
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
ETIS profile
catherine.helen.gibson@ut.ee

EMPSOLID project website: http://www.empsolid.ee

Prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to contact Dr Gibson for preliminary feedback and approval of their research proposal before the application deadline! Please note that the prospective supervisor may however not be able to provide extensive comments or help develop project descriptions at the application stage, given the large number of applicants.

This position is funded by the ERC grant (EMPSOLID – 101162204).

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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We invite applicants to propose PhD projects that are interested in:

• Behavioural insights in policymaking;
• Financial well-being;
• Application of behavioural insights for improving financial well-being.

Interested candidates are invited to prepare a research proposal outlining the specific research project they would pursue under any of these topics.

Applying behavioural insights in policy-making – designing choice architecture in a way that nudges individuals towards course of action least likely to cause them harm and most likely to benefit both their own longer-term interests and societal well-being – is gaining increasing attention. According to the OECD, there are more than a hundred so called nudge units working for governments and municipalities around the world. In total, in various forms and sectors, there are more than 300 nudge units operating globally, applying behavioural insights to topics such as reducing inequality, healthier diets, environmental sustainability, educational attainment, tax compliance, and retirement choices. As emphasized by nudge theory author Cass Sunstein in his book Behavioral Science and Public Policy, nudging is one of many behavioural policy tools. However, nudges are the best known and most studied of them. Despite the groundswell of interest in behavioural insights in research and policy, there is still an abundance of research to be conducted for developing and testing the behavioural policy tools in various contexts and for various societal problems, and for further analysis of the ethical principles of behavioural policy.

Another topic rapidly gaining attention from both policy and research is financial well-being. The ultimate aim of financial education (that is the process of developing financial literacy) is to increase financial well-being and more than 50 countries in the world (incl. Estonia) are implementing National Strategies for Financial Education. Yet there is no agreement on how to define or measure that construct, neither are there evidence-based tools for its improvement, nor even proof that financial education has an effect on financial well-being. Longitudinal data on financial well-being from multiple countries will soon be available for the successful applicant’s doctoral research, collected as part of the European Social Survey for the research project Longitudinal financial well-being assessment in turbulent times. However, the prospective candidate does not have to use that data and is free to choose any method for studying the meaning of financial well-being, contributing to its conceptualisation and operationalisation, studying its individual and contextual (e.g. culture, institutional setting) antecedents and outcomes, and to test and develop ways for improving it. The latter could (but do not have to) build on behavioural insights and provide policy implications.

Main supervisor: Dr Leonore Riitsalu
Research Fellow in Behavioural Policy
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
ETIS profile
leonore.riitsalu@ut.ee

Please contact Dr Riitsalu for approval of your proposal ahead of the application deadline! Please note that the prospective supervisor may not be able to provide extensive comments or help develop project descriptions at the application stage, given the large number of applicants.

Doctoral dissertation proposals within this cluster are expected to problematize the concept of biopolitics, its vocabulary and theoretical background within the context of international relations, geopolitics and security studies. PhD applications ought to demonstrate the cognitive potential of biopolitics as an explanatory tool for a variety of contemporary political, social and cultural issues, and explain the possibilities of using biopolitics for comparative policy analysis. Dissertation proposals should identify correlations between the core concepts of the biopolitical scholarship (biopower, sovereignty, bare life, regimes of belonging, governmentality), and approach the current political, cultural and social events through the prism of biopolitical theorizing.

Dissertation proposals accepted under this heading should also set a framework for understanding and exploring the main arguments in the growing scholarship on biopower, and relate them to global political developments, including the immigration debate, the phenomenon of populism, and violence during wars.

Main supervisor: Prof Andrey Makarychev
Professor of Regional Political Studies
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
ETIS profile
andrey.makarychev@ut.ee

Please contact Prof Makarychev for approval of your proposal ahead of the application deadline! Please note that the prospective supervisor may not be able to provide extensive comments or help develop project descriptions at the application stage, given the large number of applicants.

Recent years have witnessed intensifying concerns about a crisis of liberal democracy. Forms of elective authoritarianism, supported by powerful oligarchs, are emerging, with political leaders expressing far-going restructuring ambitions both domestically and abroad. While the full implications of this shift remain to be seen, there is now broad consensus that the post–World War II world order is unravelling. There is an apparent link between domestic and international order: the erosion of democracy in leading great powers puts international order at risk, while international volatility is likely to further weaken the prospects for democracy. A related dynamic may also apply in the context of the EU.

Dissertation projects accepted under this heading should address the recent crisis of democracy from a theoretical or historical perspective. Particularly welcome are proposals that situate the current crisis in historical context—for example, by exploring past debates on the idea of the nation-state and on the interrelationship between domestic and international order.

Main supervisor: Prof Eva Piirimäe
Professor of Political Theory
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
ETIS profile
eva.piirimae@ut.ee

Please contact Prof Piirimäe for approval of your proposal ahead of the application deadline! Please note that the prospective supervisor may not be able to provide extensive comments or help develop project descriptions at the application stage, given the large number of applicants.

Multi-stakeholder governance refers to multiorganizational arrangements that involve market, civil society and state actors who collaborate with the aim of tackling complex, often boundary-spanning, problems that no single actor can resolve alone.

Governance scholars have been preoccupied with the questions pertaining to the performance and effective management of governance networks while the issues of power, politics, and democracy in these multi-stakeholder action systems have received much less attention. Extant literature has only started to grapple with the questions of how to explore the democratic anchorage of governance networks (Torfing et al 2012) and how to assess their legitimacy (Doberstein and Millar 2014). Some scholars have questioned the linear models of accountability for investigating multi-party action systems that defy hierarchical relations (Cech 2021; Klijn and Koppenjan 2016; O’Connell 2006; Yang 2011). Others have started to address the politics of collaborative governance (Agranoff and Kolpakov 2023). Instead of embracing them as vehicles for democratic inclusion, critics of governance networks have pointed out their propensity towards closure, mistrust among the members, and a tendency to reproduce inequalities (Davies 2011).

With this background in mind, applicants are invited to develop proposals for PhD projects that engage in a study of the following topics:

• Projects that explore the democratic legitimacy of multi-stakeholder governance.
• Projects that are seeking to develop and apply alternatives to the hierarchical principal-agent model for studying democratic accountability in shared-power settings.
• Projects that investigate the consequences of technology-facilitated governance systems (such as the application of AI for policy implementation) on the transformation of the public domain, and particularly the implications for authority relationships, channels of public control, and the overall legitimacy of multi-centered governing.
• Projects that aim to contribute to the limited understanding of the tension between decentered politics of (ICT-based) co-production and the monocentric vision of democracy as well as offer strategies for the pursuit of democracy in increasingly polycentric sites of governance decoupled from the parliamentary arena.
  

Main supervisor: Dr Kristina Muhhina
Research Fellow in Public Policy
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
ETIS profile
kristina.muhhina@ut.ee

Please contact Dr Muhhina for approval of your proposal ahead of the application deadline! Please note that the prospective supervisor may not be able to provide extensive comments or help develop project descriptions at the application stage, given the large number of applicants.

We invite applications for PhD projects exploring the interplay between digital democracy and digital governance, with a focus on identifying strategies and tools that strengthen good governance in democratic systems. Proposed projects should critically examine how digital technologies are reshaping the frameworks of participation, decision-making, accountability, and transparency in democracies.

Research may address questions such as: How do digital platforms influence citizen engagement and political representation? What role do digital innovations play in combating corruption and enhancing institutional trust? What risks and opportunities do digital transformations pose to the resilience of democratic governance?

Potential research topics include, but are not limited to, the role of artificial intelligence and big data in governance, the ethical and regulatory challenges of digital policymaking, and the impact of digital platforms on electoral processes and political mobilisation. Applicants may also consider comparative studies that analyse digital governance practices across national or regional contexts or evaluate the effectiveness of digital tools in promoting inclusive governance. Proposals incorporating interdisciplinary approaches from fields such as political science, sociology, and information technology are particularly encouraged. Both qualitative and mixed-methods research designs are welcome.

Preference will be given to proposals that engage with the implications of digital democracy and digital governance in Europe, including emerging democracies. Applicants are encouraged to submit a detailed research proposal outlining their research question, methodology, and the specific contribution their project aims to make to the field.

Main supervisor: Dr Dmytro Khutkyy
Research Fellow in Digital Governance
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
ETIS profile
dmytro.khutkyy@ut.ee

Please contact Dr Khutkyy for approval of your proposal ahead of the application deadline! Please note that the prospective supervisor may not be able to provide extensive comments or help develop project descriptions at the application stage, given the large number of applicants.

We invite dissertation proposals on EU economic governance and/or the political economy of East Central Europe (ECE), with an emphasis on the Baltic states.

Over the last decades, ECE states have become global success stories of economic development either as manufacturing miracles (Visegrad-4) or competitive service economies (Baltics). However, the geoeconomic fragmentation after the Global Financial Crisis and, more recently, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has exposed the vulnerabilities of ECE development models dependent on foreign investment. In line with the emerging trend of industrial policy and state developmentalism, ECE governments have experimented with policy interventions to spur economic growth and innovation, facilitate climate, energy, digital and social transitions and increase security.

Taking a European governance perspective, PhD projects would focus on the effects of the EU’s fiscal and governance capacities, as they have evolved through the European Semester, Cohesion funds, and more recently, the Next Generation EU. Conversely, taking a political economy perspective, research projects would study national policies and institutions in the context of changing external factors, including the overlapping economic, security, and energy crises since the Russo-Ukrainian war. We also welcome proposals focusing on the Europeanization of green industrial policy, in line with the supervisor’s research agenda. Prospective PhD researchers are encouraged to use a wide range of social science methodologies.

Main supervisor: Dr Edgars Eihmanis
Research Fellow in Comparative Politics
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
ETIS profile
edgars.eihmanis@ut.ee

Please contact Dr Eihmanis for approval of your proposal ahead of the application deadline! Please note that the prospective supervisor may not be able to provide extensive comments or help develop project descriptions at the application stage, given the large number of applicants.

We invite applications for PhD projects examining party-based opposition to European integration and illiberal politics in Europe at both national and supranational levels. Ideally, proposed projects should analyse the impact of Eurosceptic politics and illiberal tendencies on the speed, direction, and intensity of European integration, as well as their underlying nature and dynamics.
Proposals may focus on the political and institutional dynamics shaping illiberal and Eurosceptic politics, the role of key actors, and the developmental trajectories of affected political systems. Conceptually relevant keywords include Euroscepticism, illiberalism, de-Europeanization, and crisis politics.

Since the early 2000s—following the EU’s most ambitious enlargement and the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty in 2005—opposition to European integration and illiberalism have increasingly shifted from the political fringes to the mainstream. These forces have shaped political discourse within both the EU and its member states. Successive crises affecting liberal democracies in Europe have further tested the resilience of domestic political systems and heightened the politicization of European integration. This process has often been instrumentalized by autocratic and/or illiberal external actors seeking to undermine European unity and erode citizens’ trust in democratic institutions.

While the thematic focus of proposals remains open, priority will be given to comparative studies at national or supranational levels. We welcome qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method research designs.

Main supervisor: Dr Stefano Braghiroli
Associate Professor of European Studies
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
ETIS profile
stefano.braghiroli@ut.ee

Please contact Dr Braghiroli for approval of your proposal ahead of the application deadline! Please note that the prospective supervisor may not be able to provide extensive comments or help develop project descriptions at the application stage, given the large number of applicants.

We invite applicants to propose PhD projects that engage in the study of the effects and the determinants of public sector institutional reforms in the EU’s Eastern neighborhood countries.

Good governance promotion and assistance to public sector institutional reforms is a growing part of the EU’s agenda. Governance reform has received particularly focused attention in the EU’s enlargement and neighborhood policy as well as in the European Consensus on Development that outlines democracy, good governance, the rule of law, and human rights as the EU’s objectives for its development policy. While the results of the reforms are underwhelming, the attention has recently turned to the need for more nuanced differentiation and tailoring of reform strategies. The question that many are grappling with is how to differentiate donor strategies given the opportunities and constraints stemming from the political economy and institutional configurations in distinct target environments? With this question in mind, applicants are invited to propose projects that would develop new knowledge about the EU’s promotion of good governance.

The candidates to the PhD program may explore how the EU modulates its strategies across different kinds of reform environments and assess the fit between the EU’s approaches and the types of implementation spaces it encounters in target countries. For investigating context-specific pathways to governance reform, the candidates should take a critical look at the political economy realities of various regime types and/or examine the nuances of the institutional configurations of distinct forms of political settlement that can be observed across the Eastern neighborhood countries. Applicants are encouraged to find innovative approaches to studying the interactions between the EU’s policy instrument mixes and the variety of authority structures impinging on domestic governance practices on the ground. For this, the projects may draw on combinations of lenses including political economy, new-institutionalism, non-democratic regime types, political settlement analysis, national administrative styles, and policy implementation styles among others. While all methodologies are welcome, qualitative approaches will be preferred.

To sum up, under this heading, applicants are invited to develop proposals for PhD projects that engage in a study of the following topics:

• Projects that adopt a policy analysis perspective to the European neighborhood studies.
• Projects that explore EU’s assistance to good governance and institutional reform through the lens of policy design and policy instruments.
• Projects that aim to investigate why certain institutional reforms succeed or fail in diverse institutional contexts of the Eastern neighborhood and identify the likely determinants of the observed results.
• Projects that aim to generate knowledge for matching various reform environments with distinct assistance strategies for evidence-based policymaking and implementation.
  

Main supervisor: Dr Kristina Muhhina
Research Fellow in Public Policy
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
ETIS profile
kristina.muhhina@ut.ee

Please contact Dr Muhhina for approval of your proposal ahead of the application deadline! Please note that the prospective supervisor may not be able to provide extensive comments or help develop project descriptions at the application stage, given the large number of applicants.

We invite applicants to propose PhD projects that focus on exploring peaceful and violent strategies that self-determination and secessionist movements use to achieve their goals of more autonomy and/or independent statehood.

More than a decade has passed since the last state emerged to join the existing “family” of internationally recognized states. Yet, there continue to be over 50 self-determination and secessionist movements attempting to achieve independent statehood (Coggins 2011), and far more that attempt to achieve autonomy. Existing scholarship on secessionism and self-determination devotes extensive attention to dozens of strategies and tactics that groups use in pursuit of their goals (Cunningham 2013). However, they generally fall under either peaceful or violent strategies (Pavković and Radan 2007). Emerging empirical analyses suggest that peaceful strategies are more likely to be successful for secessionists’ goals than violent ones (Griffiths and Wasser 2019). There are two additional pieces of evidence: (i) one suggests that groups alternate between using peaceful and violent strategies (Cunningham, Dahl, and Frugé 2017), and (ii) the other implies that peaceful or violent strategies both work depending on contextual conditions (Pavković and Radan 2007).

Under what conditions do peaceful and violent strategies work when analysed separately? When do groups choose to switch strategies? To what extent do their choice of strategy and alteration between them depend on learning from other groups’ successes and failures?

Interested candidates are invited to develop research proposals that respond to one or some of the above questions. Priority will be given to projects that attempt to tackle the above questions through a comparative method. Single case analyses are discouraged for this particular proposal.

Main supervisor: Dr Shpend Kursani
Lecturer in International Relations
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
ETIS profile
shpend.kursani@ut.ee

Please contact Dr Kursani for approval of your proposal ahead of the application deadline! Please note that the prospective supervisor may not be able to provide extensive comments or help develop project descriptions at the application stage, given the large number of applicants.

We invite dissertation proposals of a topic of the candidate’s own choosing, on the condition that the proposal fits the research interest of one of the supervisors at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies (see supervision competencies).

The proposal should fall under (one of) the following broad areas of supervision:

Comparative Politics:

• Electoral studies, political participation, and political culture;
• Democracy and democratization;
• Nationalism and ethnopolitics;
• Memory politics and transitional justice;
• E-services, e-governance and e-voting, and the impact of information and communication technologies on political participation and electoral behaviour.

International Relations:

• International relations, international security, and foreign policy;
• Identity, sovereignty, geopolitics;
• Borders, regions, regionalism;
• European integration;
• Historical and contemporary theories of international justice, nationalism, and cosmopolitanism.

Our regional focus is mainly on:

• Russia and Eurasia
• Eastern Europe
• European Union

Interested candidates are invited to prepare a research proposal outlining the specific research project they would pursue under this general topic, and based on the proposal guidelines outlined on this webpage below.

We request applicants to establish contact with one of our faculty before applying to receive a preliminary consent on supervision, to avoid rejection on thematic grounds. However, please note that the prospective supervisors may not be able to provide extensive comments or help develop project descriptions at the application stage, given the large number of applicants, or that they might decline the request for supervision due to other ongoing commitments.

Please contact either the potential advisor directly or Ms Kristel Vits, Coordinator of Political Science specialty (kristel.vits@ut.ee), for advice on the potential advisor(s) ahead of the application deadline!

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

Butrint Berisha, MA (Stockholm)

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

Logan Carmichael, MA (Auckland)

Topic: "Cybersecurity Uplift in the Estonian Digital Governance Model, 2007-2021"
Supervisor: Mihkel Solvak

Michael Cole, MA (Birmingham)

Topic: "The influence of Russian discourse on right-wing populist discourses in Ukraine and Georgia"
Supervisor: Andrey Makarychev

Stefan Dedovic, MA (TalTech)

Topic: "Interoperability governance of the cross-border mobile electronic identification"
Supervisors: Vincent Homburg, Mihkel Solvak and Joep Crompvoets,

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:

Ville Tapani Haapanen, MA (Tartu)

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

Sandra Hagelin, MA (Amsterdam)

Topic: "Understanding the role of borders and boundaries in European Integration following the Covid-19 crisis"
Supervisors: Stefano Braghiroli and Thomas Diez

Biao He, MA (OsloMet)

Topic: "E-governance for all: How does the Chinese local government bridge the digital divide that persons with disabilities experience in the use of e-governance services?"
Supervisors: Vincent Homburg and Mihkel Solvak

Urmas Hõbepappel, MA (Lund)

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

Sanshiro Hosaka, MA (OUJ)

Topic: "Covering Former Empire 'Peripheries': Academia's Reception of Russian Strategic Narratives in International Conflicts"
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

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:

Tatiana Lupacheva, MA (Tartu)

Topic: "The electoral consequences of personalised parliamentary behaviour: A comparative textual analysis of legislative speeches"
Supervisor: Martin Mölder

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

Eoin Micheal McNamara, MA/MSc (Tartu/ London)

Topic: "The Risk Society and Stabilisation Policy: An Analysis of NATO and the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan"
Supervisor: Andres Kasekamp and Eiki Berg

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

Bogdan Romanov, MA (Tartu)

Topic: "Electronic voting in Russia: the scrutiny of 'i-voting' in an authoritarian context"
Supervisor: Mihkel Solvak and Margarita Zavadskaya

Oliver Rowe, MA (Geneva)

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

Anselm Schmidt, MA (Regensburg)

Topic: "Russian versus Ukrainian 'International' News Media and the War in Ukraine: Between Actors and Instruments of State"
Supervisor: Andrey Makarychev

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

George Spencer Terry, MA (Tartu)

Topic: "The Far Right as a Cultural Phenomenon: Searching for Definitions in Italy, Poland, and Estonia"
Supervisor: Andrey Makarychev

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.

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