PhD in Political Science
The page header has a fragment from the collection of Estonica dissertatsions: Johannes Erici Stregnensis, Disputatio Politica Prima, De Natura Et Constitutione Politices In Genere, Dorpati Livonorum:Typis Acad, 1640
The PhD programme in Political Science is offered entirely in English, and the Institute welcomes applications from both Estonian and international students. The Political Science PhD programme has full accreditation and has received a positive external review in 2011 and 2019. The nominal study time is four years. From the academic year of 2022/2023, PhD students will be admitted to the Doctoral Programme of the Faculty of Social Sciences, with a specialization in Political Science.
Currently, around thirty PhD students are enrolled in Political Science doctoral programme, about 15 as resident PhD researchers. An increasing number of them are international students, coming from Germany, Japan, China, the UK, Sweden, Canada, Kosovo, Serbia, Russia, Armenia, Finland, Turkey, Azerbaijan, USA, and Indonesia.
- For general information about doctoral studies at the University of Tartu, guidelines and regulations, as well as funding, please visit the University of Tartu’s website on doctoral studies.
- For detailed information about the curriculum and organisation of studies, please see the Faculty of Social Science’s webpage.
For more information about the research areas, publications and current research projects of the faculty, please visit the institute members' website for an overview of their supervision competencies (click on the grid view). You are also welcome to look for our staff members’ individual profiles in the Estonian Research Information System. Additionally, please familiarize yourself with the main research directions of the institute. It is a precondition for acceptance into the PhD programme that the Institute has the necessary expertise for supervising the project suggested.
Before submitting documents, applicants should contact a prospective supervisor from the Institute’s faculty or seek advice from the PhD programme coordinator Kristel Vits (kristel.vits@ut.ee) about who to contact. It is essential for the application's success that prospective PhD students approach us with a sound research project and seek to establish a preliminary agreement on supervision with one of our faculty members before submitting their application.
Spring 2024 admission
The Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies at the University of Tartu invites applications for a fully-funded PhD/junior research fellow in the academic year 2024/2025.
Application deadlines:
- May 1-15 for international applicants
- June 1-15 for Estonian applicants and international applicants graduating in Estonia. Please note that in this round, the application will have to be submitted through an online portal which requires an Estonian ID-card/residence card. In case you do not have an active ID-card, you should follow the deadlines above.
- June 28 admission interviews for the Political Science speciality
Duration of studies:
September 2024 – August 2028 (48 months)
Funding:
monthly salary of 1,875€ (gross salary) (see funding details here)
Information sessions:
- April 17 for Social Sciences PhD programme in Estonian
- April 18 for Social Sciences PhD programme in English
- April 19 for Political Science speciality. With pre-registration here!
List of topics
Research project “Exploring Dynamics of "Frozen Conflicts" through Actor-based Interactions” is announcing a call for applications for a PhD position. The proposed PhD project should explore the role of “left-behind” minorities in the conflict dynamics between parent states and secessionist entities/de facto states.
In conflicts between de facto states and their parent states, the latter are motivated to employ counter-secessionist strategies as a matter of undermining de facto states’ agency in international affairs (Ker-Lindsay 2012; Griffiths and Muro 2020). In that, parent states may, and usually do, rely on their own “left behind” national minorities remaining in de facto states to add another dimension to their territorially based expectations. The situation resembles the triadic nexus model of Rogers Brubaker (1995), where de facto states embarking on state-building become the nationalising “states”, turning the members of the parent state ethnicities into a new national minority, and reimaging the parent state as an “external” national homeland.
Focusing on how these “left behind” national minorities view, project, and aim at finding their place in an existing frozen conflict can impact the potential dynamics of these conflicts, although the topic of these actors’ place and role in understanding the dynamics of frozen conflicts and their respective trajectories in a more comprehensive way remains limited. We are especially missing comparative accounts that would aim at tentative generalizations based on the study of “left behind” minorities across a variety of cases, both contemporary and past. Possible cases that could be included in the project are Moldovans in Transnistria, Georgians in Abkhazia, and Serbs in Kosovo.
Interested candidates are invited to prepare a research proposal outlining the specific research project they would pursue under this general topic.
Main supervisor: Prof Eiki Berg
Professor of International Relations Theory
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
ETIS profile
eiki.berg@ut.ee
Please contact Prof Berg for approval of your proposal ahead of the application deadline! Please note that the prospective supervisor is not in a position 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 analyzed 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 is not in a position to provide extensive comments or help develop project descriptions at the application stage, given the large number of applicants.
Applicants are invited to propose PhD projects focusing on the politics of history and memory to answer broader questions about the relevance of the past for the twenty-first century world. Proposals might choose to explore:
- the instrumentalization of history and memory in political discourse, foreign policy, as well as mnemonic controversies and “memory battles”;
- multidirectional memory or the uses of historical analogies and comparisons in the present-day;
- the entangled relationship between history, collective memory, and various forms of identity (e.g. national, regional, generational, gender and sexuality), as well as forgetting, omissions, and silences surrounding certain historical events or the experiences of particular groups;
- transnational and international initiatives aimed at promoting shared understandings of the past to challenge or transcend nation-state borders as the traditional containers of history and memory.
Areas of focus might include, but are not limited to, the politics of history and memory in museums and archives, monuments and counter-monuments, textbooks, popular culture (film, music, fiction, comic books etc.), or digital media, such as computer games, social media, blogs, online forums. In addition to analysing visual and material representations, discourses, and narrative framings, applicants are encouraged to consider the role of different mnemonic actors (e.g. politicians, historians and museum curators, artists) in shaping the ways we engage with the past, as well as the reception of their activities by diverse audiences.
Interested candidates are invited to prepare a research proposal outlining the specific research project they would pursue under this general topic. Projects should use qualitative methods, and the field of memory studies lends itself to those interested in working with a range of interdisciplinary approaches from across the social science and humanities. Preference will be given to proposals focusing on any region of Central and Eastern Europe or Russia. Projects engaging with decolonial, deimperial, and decentering perspectives on the study of history and memory in relation to the imperial and/or Soviet past are especially welcome.
Main supervisor: Dr Catherine Gibson
Lecturer in East European and Eurasian Studies
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
ETIS profile
catherine.helen.gibson@ut.ee
Potential co-supervisor: Dr Heiko Pääbo
Lecturer in the Politics of the Baltic Sea Region Countries
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
ETIS profile
heiko.paabo@ut.ee
Please contact Dr Gibson for approval of your proposal ahead of the application deadline! Please note that the prospective supervisor is not in a position 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 with party-based opposition to the process of European integration and illiberal politics in Europe both at the national and supranational level. Ideally, the proposed projects would explore and assess the impact of Eurosceptic politics and illiberal tendencies on the speed, direction, and intensity of the process of European integration as well as their nature and inner dynamics.
The proposal would possibly highlight the political and institutional dynamics that define illiberal and Eurosceptic politics, the role of the key actors involved, and the related developmental trajectories of the affected political systems. From a conceptual perspective, keywords are euroscepticism, illiberalism, de-europeanization, and crisis politics.
Starting from the early 2000s, following the most ambitious enlargement in its history and the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty in 2005, opposition to the process of European integration and illiberalism have progressively moved from the extremes to the mainstream and have often set the tone of the political discussion both in the European Union (EU) and in its member states. In addition, the multiple and successive challenges that have affected liberal democracies in Europe have put to test the resilience of domestic political systems and increased the politicization of the process of European integration. This has been often instrumentalized by autocratic external actors with the aim to undermine European unity and citizens' trust in democratic institutions.
Interested candidates are invited to prepare a research proposal outlining the specific research project they would pursue under this general topic. While the focus of the proposal is open, priority will be given to comparative studies at the national or supranational levels. Both qualitative, quantitative, and mixed research designs are welcome.
Main supervisor: Dr Stefano Braghiroli
Associate Professor in 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 is not in a position 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 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 policymaking – 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 is not in a position to provide extensive comments or help develop project descriptions at the application stage, given the large number of applicants.
This section is focused on the EU economic governance and political economy of East Central Europe (ECE) with a special focus 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, the war in Ukraine have exposed the vulnerabilities of ECE “dependent” growth models. In line with the broader trend regarding “state developmentalism”, ECE governments have increasingly experimented with industrial policies to spur economic growth, foster innovation and facilitate climate, energy, digital and social transitions.
PhD projects submitted under this heading would study such dynamics from a disciplinary perspective at the intersection of EU economic governance and comparative political economy. First, taking a European governance perspective, projects would focus on the effects of the EU’s fiscal and governance capacities, as they have evolved through the European Semester, the Cohesion funds, and more recently, the Next Generation EU. Second, and related, research projects would from a political economy angle compare state responses to domestic “growth coalitions” and various international constraints, such as the EU’s macro-economic and fiscal conditionalities, and the dependence on foreign finance.
Interested candidates are invited to prepare a research proposal outlining the specific research project they would pursue under this general topic; and 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 is not in a position to provide extensive comments or help develop project descriptions at the application stage, given the large number of applicants.
You can submit a proposal on a topic of your 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.
We require applicants to establish contact with one of our faculty before submitting an application to receive a preliminary consent on supervision, in order to avoid rejection on thematic grounds. However, please note that the prospective supervisors are not in a position to provide extensive comments or help develop project descriptions at the application stage, given the large number of applicants.
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!
Who can apply?
Persons holding a Master's degree or a corresponding level of education may apply for PhD studies.
- Applicants with Estonian citizenship should follow the instructions given here.
- International applicants, including applicants with a previous degree from an Estonian institution of higher education, should follow the instructions given here.
Applicants seeking admission to the PhD programme in Political Science are evaluated based on a PhD research proposal (50%) and an admission interview (50%).
The PhD research proposal (at a minimum of 5 pages, including a list of sources) must be added to the application documents. It should include the following:
- the topic of the proposed PhD thesis (presentation of the research problem, positioning it in the context of the existing literature);
- objectives of the thesis;
- description of data and research methods;
- expected results, their novelty and importance;
- a brief timeline of the proposed research;
- list of sources;
- brief summary of previous academic or practical experience relevant to the proposed PhD research.
Applicants whose research proposals are evaluated positively (see details below) are invited to an admission interview to determine their motivation and academic potential. Topics discussed during the interview can include the following:
- the applicant’s prior academic and work experience (based on the applicant’s CV);
- choice of topic and the research proposal -- in particular, its relevance and feasibility;
- motivation to receive a PhD in Political Science and future career plans;
- readiness to adapt to new institutional and cultural settings.
The interview lasts around 20 minutes. Invitations to the interviews are sent 5-7 days before the interview. Applicants who reside abroad can participate in the interview via telecommunication means. Assessment criteria for the research proposal:
- Appropriateness and justification of the chosen theoretical and methodological approach (40%; 20 points);
- Novelty and relevance of the proposed research (30%; 15 points);
- Feasibility of the proposed project (30%; 15 points).
Assessment criteria for the interview:
- Motivation to pursue a PhD in Political Science and readiness to commit to the programme (30%; 15 points);
- Relevance of previous academic and work experience to the programme and the proposed PhD research (30%; 15 points);
- Ability to justify the research proposal, including in the context of major debates in the field (30%; 15 points);
- Presentation and interpersonal skills (10%; 5 points).
Both the research proposal and admission interview are assessed on a scale of 0 to 50 points. To be invited to an interview, the applicant must earn at least 35 points for the research proposal. To be considered for the position, the result of the admission interview must be at least 35 points.
The interview time will be agreed with each interviewee individually after submission and evaluation of the research proposals.
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: Viacheslav Morozov
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"
Supervisor: Stefano Braghiroli
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
Kristjan Kaldur, MA (Tartu)
Topic: "Early patterns of integration among the newly arrived migrants: the case of Russian-speaking new migrants in Estonia"
Supervisors: Piret Ehin and Kristina Kallas
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
Maria Leek, MA (Tartu)
Topic: "Conceptualizing the European Union as an international actor: an analysis of the moving position of the EU’s Self and the construction of Europe from within"
Supervisor: Viacheslav Morozov
Thomas Michael Linsenmaier, MA (FU Berlin)
Topic: "The interplay between regional international societies – towards a European security architecture?”
Supervisor: Viacheslav Morozov
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: "What determines the NATO contribution of small post-2004 allies? A comparative analysis of Estonia, Slovenia and Bulgaria"
Supervisor: Andres Kasekamp and Eiki Berg
Bogdan Romanov, MA (Tartu)
Topic: "Electronic voting in Russia: the scrutiny of 'i-voting' in an authoritarian context"
Supervisor: Mihkel Solvak
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
Mari-Liis Sulg, MA (Tallinn)
Topic: "Small State Foreign Policy strategic options: Estonian Example"
Supervisor: Eiki Berg
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
Märten Veskimäe, MA (Tartu)
Topic: "Measuring the impact of government e-services"
Supervisor: Mihkel Solvak
Maili Vilson, MA (Tartu)
Topic: "The Europeanization of national foreign policy during the crisis in Ukraine"
Supervisors: Viacheslav Morozov and 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
