Founding Director
Dr Hugo Meijer
CNRS Research Fellow
Sciences Po, Center for International Studies (CERI) 
Research themes: International Relations, Foreign Policy Analysis, Security Studies, Alliances.
About
The People
Our Board members advise and steer the organisation, notably through thematic Working Groups (WG). The support team handles day-to-day operations.
Leadership
Treasurer
Dr Marie Robin
Assistant Professor of War Studies
Leiden University 
Research themes: Revenge in international relations, Strategic use of emotions, Evolution of conflictuality, Ethics of war.
Secretary-General
Dr Moritz Weiss
Senior lecturer
LMU Munich 
Moritz Weiss (he) is Senior Lecturer of International Relations and European Studies at LMU Munich. He is Action Chair of 'NetSec'; and also Principal Co-Investigator of the projects ‘The Making of National Security’ (funded by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung) and 'Big Tech and Regulatory Capture' (funded by the Mercator Foundation Switzerland). His research focuses on the governance of European and international security as well as the political economy of digital technologies. He was a visiting professor of international politics at the Leibniz University Hannover and the LMU Munich as well as a Jean-Monnet-Fellow at the EUI in Florence. His research was published in Security Studies, Contemporary Security Policy, Journal of Global Security Studies, Governance, Review of International Political Economy, International Studies Review, Journal of Common Market Studies, West European Politics and Journal of European Public Policy.
Research themes: International security, governance of new technologies, political economy of defense industries, cybersecurity, platform power
Board Members
Board Member
Prof. Nicolas Blarel
Associate Professor of International Relations and Director of Studies
Leiden University
Research themes: Foreign Policy Analysis, Politics of migration governance, International politics of South Asia.
Board Member
Prof. Antonio Calcara
Professor
Vrije Universiteit Brussels 
Research themes: European Security and Defence, Defence Industry, Political Economy.
Board Member
Dr Julia Carver
Assistant Professor
Leiden University
Research themes: Foreign policymaking, Strategic concepts, Emerging digital technologies.
Board Member
Prof. Silvia D’Amato
Associate Professor
James Madison University 
Research themes: Terrorism, Political Violence and War, Peace and Justice.
Board Member
Prof. Filip Ejdus
Professor of Security Studies
Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade 
Research themes: Identity, memory, and emotions, International interventions, Civil-military relations, Security sector reform.
Board Member
Dr Eliza Gheorghe
Assistant Professor
Department of International Relations, Bilkent University 
Research themes: International Relations Theory, International Security, Nuclear Politics.
Board Member Events Coordinator
Dr John N.T. Helferich
College Lecturer in International Relations
University of Oxford 
John Helferich is a Lecturer in Politics at Hertford College and a researcher with the Oxford Global Security Programme. His research focuses on European security and transformations in international order. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) in International Relations from the University of Oxford and a Master’s degree in International Security (summa cum laude) from Sciences Po. His dissertation on EU defence integration won the PSA Best Dissertation Prize in International Relations. He chairs the Working Group on Transfer of Knowledge within the COST Action Networking European Security Knowledge and serves as a board member of the European Initiative for Security Studies (EISS).
Research themes: Foreign Policy Analysis, European Security, Political Psychology, Research Methods
Board Member
Prof. Marina Henke
Professor of International Relations and Director of the Centre for International Security
Hertie School
Research themes: Intervention decision-making, Nuclear security, U.S. and European Grand Strategy.
Board Member
Alisa Kerschbaum
Research Grant Advisor
University of Amsterdam
Research themes: Global affairs, International Peace & Security, Environmental security.
Board Member
Sarka Kolmasova
Deputy Head & Assistant Professor
Department of International Relations and European Studies, Metropolitan University Prague 
Research themes: Norms, Military Interventions, Responsibility to Protect, Human Rights in International Politics.
Board Member Technology Coordinator
Dr Arthur Laudrain
Team Lead and Senior Researcher
ETH Zurich - Center for Security Studies 
Arthur specialises in election interference, disinformation, subversion, and military cyber operations. Previously, he was the Richard Lounsbery US-France Security Fellow at Stanford CISAC, and a Research Associate in Cyber Diplomacy at the Department of War Studies at King's College London. He is a member of the Management Committee of NetSec (Networking European Security Knowledge), a European Cooperation in Science and Technology project. He also maintains affiliations with Stanford CISAC and King's College London. Arthur has a wide profesionnal experience spanning think-tanks (CSS 2017; IISS 2019; HCSS 2022), consulting (Oxford Analytica, ISTARI), and government projects. He obtained his DPhil from the University of Oxford (Wolfson College), and holds an MA (London) and LLM (Leiden). He is an Associate of King's College (AKC) and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
Research themes: election interference, disinformation, subversion
Board Member
Dr Chiara Libiseller
Lecturer in Strategic Studies
King’s College London
Research themes: Knowledge production on war, Changing character of war, Impact of technology on the theory and practice of war.
Board Member
Prof. Revecca Pedi
Associate Professor of International Relations
University of Macedonia 
Research themes: International relations of small states, Theories of international relations, International relations and the European Union.
Board Member
Prof. Chiara Ruffa
Professor of Political Science
Sciences Po, Center for International Studies (CERI)
Research themes: Multilateralism on the ground, Peacekeeping, Civil-military relations, Political sociology, Fieldwork.
Board Member
Prof. Olivier Schmitt
Head of Research
Institute for Military Operations, Royal Danish Defence College 
Research themes: Military Operations, Alliances, Transformation.
Board Member
Dr Tim Sweijs
Director of Research
The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies
Research themes: Warfare (past, present, future), Strategy, Coercion, Deterrence, Emerging technologies.
Board Member
Dr Sanne Verschuren
Assistant Professor of International Security
Boston University
Research themes: Domestic determinants of security policy, Role of ideas, norms, and institutions in national security decision-making.
Board Member
Prof. Marco Wyss
Professor of International History and Security
Lancaster University
Research themes: Cold War, African and European defence, Neutrality.
Support Staff
Support Staff
Ms. Angela Sajewicz
Masters Student
James Madison University
Support Staff Communications Coordinator
Eugenio Sanchez
PhD Candidate in International Relations
Sciences Po Paris
Eugenio assists with the development of our communication strategy and the logistics of our events. He is a PhD candidate in International Relations at Sciences Po Paris. Eugenio joined the Initiative in 2023.
EISS community 23
People who have shaped EISS over the years: former board members, support staff, and interns. They remain part of our wider European security studies network.
Support Staff · 2026
James Roughan
Sciences Po
Support Staff · 2026
Lise Mai
Sciences Po
Support Staff · 2026
Ali Gohar
Sciences Po
Support Staff · 2026
Shirley Tian
The University of Edinburgh
Support Staff · 2025
Adam Gajdosik
Sciences Po
Support Staff · 2025
Raaghavi Tandon
Sciences Po
Support Staff · 2025
Gillian Gonnord
The University of Edinburgh
Support Staff · 2025
Trinabh Banerjee
Sciences Po
Support Staff · 2025
Teresa Marzo
Sciences Po
Support Staff · 2024
Federico Pirino
Columbia SIPA
Support Staff · 2024
Eva Castelletti
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore 
Support Staff · 2023
Haoyu Wang
Sciences Po
Support Staff · 2023
Giulia Bretel De Simone
Sciences Po
Support Staff · 2023
Robin Staes-Polet
Sciences Po
Support Staff · 2023
Ulysse Richard
Sciences Po
Support Staff · 2023
Camilo Torres Casanova
Sciences Po
Support Staff · 2023
Francisco Ferreira
College of Europe
Support Staff · 2023
Yiqi Yu
Harvard Kennedy School
Support Staff · 2023
Kim Hirsch-Hoffmann
Sciences Po
Board Member
Flavia Gasbarri
King's College London
Board Member
Mauro Gilli
ETH Zurich
Board Member
Stephanie Hofmann
European University Institute
Board Member
Avinash Paliwal
SOAS University of London