Professor Elena Korosteleva

Director of the Institute for Global Sustainable Development

elena dot korosteleva at warwick dot ac dot uk

R2.12, Ramphal Building, School of Cross-Faculty Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL

Biography

Elena Korosteleva is Professor of Global Sustainable Development, and Jean Monnet Chair of European Politics, which she was awarded twice by the European Commission in recognition of her research and teaching excellence. Before joining IGSD in 2022, she was Professor of International Politics and Director of the Global Europe Centre (Professional Studies) at the University of Kent for ten years. Prior to that Elena was a Senior Lecturer in International Politics and Director of the Centre for European Studies at Aberystwyth University.

Professor Korosteleva was the Principal Investigator for the GCRF UKRI COMPASS project (ES/P010849/1, 2017-21, £4mln), which concluded in March 2022. It was supported by the British government via UKRI, to address the challenges of capacity-building in developing countries. In particular, the COMPASS project, along with its partner at the University of Cambridge, sought to establish ‘the hubs of excellence’ at the top-level HEIs in Azerbaijan (ADA University), Belarus (BSU), Tajikistan (TNU) and Uzbekistan (UWED) for global partnership-building in the areas of research integration, impact governance, and sustainable communities. The project was HIGHLY COMMENDED by the Times Higher Education in 2021, under the category of the Best International Collaboration of the Year.

In 2022 Professor Korosteleva will also commence her new €3,007,895 Horizon Europe project (SHAPEDEM_EU), which she co-developed with her European colleagues, under the leadership of Professor Andrea Gawrich at JLU Giessen University, Germany, and for which she will act as Co-Investigator to redefine the theory and practice of democracy in the developing countries of the EU’s neighbourhoods.

Research Interests

Resilience, complexity, capacity-building and sustainable development
Concepts of partnership, governance and order in IR and Development studies
Europe as a global actor, in Development, Environment, Foreign Policy and Security
Pluralising and contextualising democracy
Relations with Russia, Eastern and Central Europe, and Central Asia

Elena has over 20 years of professional experience of researching issues of Global Sustainable Development, with a focus on Global Europe and Central Eurasia from a Complex IR and Development perspective. She received her Doctoral Degree in European Studies & Modern Languages from the University of Bath (2001), and a PhD equivalent in Political Sociology from the Belarusian State University (1997). Thereafter she served as a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow, and Lecture/Senior Lecturer/Professor at the Universities of Aberystwyth and Kent. She is currently a Visiting Professor at the Oxford Belarus Observatory; the LSE IDEAS; European Institute for International Law & International Relations, and the College of Europe (Natolin). Elena served as member of the International Advisory Board for the GLOBSEC and Central European Strategy Council; Professorial Fellow of the Dahrendorf Forum at LSE IDEAS, and core group member, Munich Security Conference (2018). Elena works closely with UK (Westminster, FCDO, British Council, WFD, HMG Embassies) and EU institutions (European Commission, External Action Service, European Parliament and regional EUDs), EU organisations (TEPSA, IRI, CEPS), and national governments in wider Eurasia. Elena is a regular media commentator for BBC, ITV, France24, Sky News and national news channels.

Global Challenges Research Fund UKRI Conflict Intersections Call (AH/V007475/1; £200K; 2021-22; Principal Investigator) GOOD-Neighbour, focusing on resilience-building and sustainable development in Central Asia
Global Challenges Research Fund UKRI Cluster Call (EP/T024801/1; £150k; 2020-21; 1^st round; Co-Investigator) AGRE, with Universities of Durham and Oxford, focusing on connectivity and challenges of globalisation for sustainable development across Central Eurasia, Middle East and Mongolia. The 1^st phase sets to develop a £3mln project for 2022.
Global Challenges Research Fund UKRI (ES/PO10849/1; £4mln; 2017-21; Principal Investigator) COMPASS, an interdisciplinary capacity-building project to explore adaptive governance, change & resilience in Eastern Europe & Central Asia. The project was shortlisted for the Times Higher Education (THE) International Collaboration Award 2021.
H2020 twinning project UPTAKE (H2020-TWINN-2015 691818; €1,2mio; 2016-19; Co-Investigator) on research capacity-building in the area of IR and Global Security Studies, in cooperation with Tartu and Uppsala Universities
AHRC CEELBAS development fund, Phase II, a seven-member consortium (AH/L006715/1, £312,618, 2014-16; CI)
ESRC 1st Grants Scheme (RES-061-25-0001; £500K; 2008-11; Principal Investigator) Research project ‘Europeanizing or Securitizing the ‘outsiders’? Assessing the EU’s partnership-building approach with Eastern Europe’ to examine EU governance and order in the eastern neighbourhood, inclusive of Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova
British Academy (BA, £100K; 2001-2004) British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellowship 'The quality of democracy in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova', University of Glasgow, to examine models of governance and security
EU/INTAS (INTAS-1999-00245, €90K; 2000-2002; Principal Investigator) Research project ‘Charismatic political leadership in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine’, University of Bath, to examine governance models in eastern Europe.

Elena is the author of 10 books; over 90 articles, chapters and briefs

Books:

Resilience in EU and International Institutions: Redefining Local Ownership in a New Global Governance Agenda (London: Routledge 2020, 30 November), ISBN 9780367543914 (editor and contributor)
“The Politics” and “The Political” of the Eastern Partnership Initiative: Reshaping the Agenda (London: Routledge 2018), ISBN 9780815358985; 9780367511319 paper edition 2020 (editor and contributor)
EU Policies in the Eastern Neighbourhood: the practices perspective (London: Routledge 2014), ISBN 9780415720571, (editor and contributor)
The European Union and its Eastern Neighbours: towards a more ambitious partnership? (London: Routledge, 2012) ISBN 9780415612616, 2014 paper edition
Eastern Partnership: a new opportunity for neighbours? (London: Routledge, 2011), ISBN 9780415676076 (editor and contributor)
Vostochnoe Partnerstvo: problemy i perspektivy [Eastern Partnership: problems and perspectives], (Minsk: Belarusian State University, 2011), ISBN 9789854910888 (editor and contributor)
The Quality of Democracy in Post-Communist Europe (London: Routledge, 2006). ISBN 0415348072 (editor and contributor)
Postcommunist Belarus (N.Y. & Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005) ISBN 074253555-X (editor and contributor)
Contemporary Belarus: Between Democracy and Dictatorship (London: Routledge Curzon, 2003) ISBN 0700716130 (editor and contributor)
Intellektual v socio-kul’turnom kontekste sovremennogo obschestva: dialektika proshlogo i budushchego [The Intellectual in a socio-cultural context of modern society: the dialectics of the past and the future], ISBN 9856390079 Minsk: VEDY, 1997

ARTICLES (PEER-REVIEWED): 2013+

‘Societal resilience in Belarus and the EU response’, Journal of Common Market studies, Annual Review (28 Sept 2021), DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13248
‘Understanding fragilities and resilience: the emergence of peoplehood in Belarus’, Journal of Eurasian Studies (2021, 29 Aug) as part of Special Issue. Advanced online publication: https://doi.org/10.1177/18793665211037835
Special Issue ‘The Making of Resilient Communities in Central Eurasia’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs (co-editor) 35(3) 2022
‘What makes communities resilient?’ Introduction (under review)
Special Issue ‘Russia between East & West, & the Future of Eurasian Order’, International Politics (co-editor) 58(3) June 2021
‘Russia between east and west, and the future of Eurasian order’ (with Zach Paikin), Introduction, 58(3): 321-34 DOI:1057/s41311-020-00261-5
‘From “the global” to “the local’: the future of cooperative orders in Central Eurasia in times of complexity’ (with I. Petrova) 58(3): 421-44 DOI:1057/s41311-020-00262-4
Special Issue ‘Resilience in EU and International Institutions’, Contemporary Security Policy (co-editor) 42(2) 2020
‘Resilience in EU and International Institutions: redefining local ownership in a new global governance agenda’, 42(2): 153-75 (with T. Flockhart) DOI: 10.1080/13523260.2020.1723973
‘Reclaiming Resilience Back: A local turn in EU external governance’, 42(2) 2020: 241-62 DOI: 1080/13523260.2019.1685316
‘Putting the EU Global Security Strategy to Test: “cooperative orders” and othering in EU-Russia relations’, International Politics, 56(3) 2019: 304-20. Special Issue DOI: 10.1057/s41311-017-0128-7
‘Paradigmatic or Critical? Resilience as a New Turn in EU governance for the Neighbourhood’, Journal of International Relations and Development (accepted July 2018), 23(3) 2020: 682-700 http://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-018-0155-z
Special Issue ‘The Politics and the Political of the Eastern Partnership Initiative: re-shaping the agenda’ (co-editor) 33(3) 2017
‘Eastern Partnership: Bringing “The Political Back in”’, East European Politics, 33(3) 2017: 1-25
‘Eastern Partnership and the Eurasian Union’, European Politics and Societies, Special Issue ‘Eurasia in a Global Context’, 17(sup1) 2016: 67-81
‘The EU, Russia and the Eastern Region: the analytics of governance for sustainable cohabitation’, Cooperation and Conflict, 51(3) 2016: 365-83
‘The EU and Belarus: democracy promotion by technocratic means?’, Democratization 23(4) 2015: 678-99
‘Evaluating the role of partnership in the European Neighbourhood Policy’, Eastern Journal of European Studies, Special Issue, 4(2) December 2013: 11-36
Special Issue ‘The ENP in the Eastern Region: the practices perspective’, East European Politics, 29(3) 2013 (co-editor)
‘The Eastern Dimension of the ENP: practices, instruments and social structures’, Special Issue, ‘The ENP in the Eastern Region: the practices perspective’, East European Politics, 29(3) 2013: 257-73 (with M. Natorski and L. Simao)

CHAPTERS: 2013+

‘Resilience in Global International Society’, chapter in Flockhart, T. & Paikin, Z. (eds) Rebooting Global International Society: Change, Contestation and Resilience (Palgrave, 2022 forthcoming)
‘Challenges of a Changing European Neighbourhood’, in, T. Schumacher, T. Demmelhuber, and A. Marchetti (eds.) The Routledge Handbook on the European Neighbourhood Policy (Routledge, 2017) Ch.15 ISBN 9781138913721
‘”The Political” and the ENP: Rethinking the EU Relations with the eastern region’, in S. Gstohl, and S. Schunz (eds.) Theorizing the ENP (Routledge, 2017), (with I.Merheim-Eyre, and E. van Gils), pp. 226-44
‘The EU-Russia relations: in search of a dialogue’, in C. Nitou (ed.) Avoiding a New “Cold War”’ (LSE IDEAS, March 2016), pp. 40-46
‘Towards the European Global Security Strategy: challenges and opportunities’, in A. Spruds and K. Bukovskis (2015) Towards Reassurance and Solidarity in Euro-Atlantic Community, LIIA Riga Summit papers, 39-48
‘The EU and Russia: prospects for cohabitation in the contested region’, in D. Lane (ed.) The Eurasian Project and Europe: Regional Discontinuities and Geopolitics (Palgrave 2015), pp. 187-203
‘The EU and its Eastern Neighbours: why ‘othering’ matters’, in Nicolaidis, K. and B. Sebe (eds.) Echoes of Empire: memories, identity and colonial legacies (London: Tauris, 2015), pp. 267-83
‘Belarus: Neither with the EU nor the ECU?’, in P. Dutkiewicz and R. Sakwa (eds.) Eurasian Integration: the View from Within (Routledge 2014), pp.111-126
‘Questioning Democracy Promotion: Belarus’ Response to the Coloured Revolutions’, in Finkel, E. and Brudny, Y. (eds.) Coloured Revolutions and Authoritarian Reactions (Routledge, 2013) ISBN 9780415639576

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Change, Complexity, and Multi-Order Governance: the making of resilient communities in Central Eurasia (2022, book manuscript under review with Oxford University Press)
Belarus in XXI century: the birth of peoplehood (2022, in progress, contract with Routledge)
‘Resilience, Security and Local Ownership in EU Foreign Policies’, a symposium for JCMS (spring 2022)
‘Challenges to Democracy Promotion: an ontological perspective’, Democratization (work in progress)

BRIEFING RESEARCH & POLICY PAPERS (2019+):

Power, People and Politics: Understanding the Belarusian Crisis, E-International Relations, 8 September 2020
A Changing Belarus? The country in the eye of the storm, LSE Dahrendorf Forum Debating Europe, 5 August 2020
The Eastern Partnership 3.0: Change or Continuity?, LSE Dahrendorf Forum Debating Europe, 24 April 2020
Resilience is Dead. Long Live Resilience? Hertie Dahrendorf & Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), 9 April 2020
The EU and the EaP Countries: how to “lose weight” and incentivise reform? GCRF COMPASS Paper, 17 February 2020
The EU and Central Asia: New opportunities or ‘the same old song’? LSE Dahrendorf Forum, June 2019
Five years after Maidan: Toward a Greater Eurasia?, LSE IDEAS GCRF COMPASS report, May 2019
A Comedian, a President, and a Prime Minister: The 2019 presidential election in Ukraine, LSE IDEAS Forum, 2019

Professor Korosteleva is interested in supervising research degree students who wish to explore conceptually and practically, the notions of governance, societal resilience, complexity, democracy, ‘the local’ vs ‘the global’, and sustainable development, especially with the focus on wider/central Eurasia .

Director of the Institute for Global Sustainable Development.
Member of the Environmental and Social Sustainability Action Group