Main interests:
Please contact me at: siddi.marco@gmail.com
I am a researcher and Ph.D. candidate at the universities of Edinburgh and Cologne. My main focus is on historical and current perceptions of Russia in EU member states and how these affect European foreign policy towards Russia. During my stays at the Trans European Policy Studies Association (Brussels) and at the Hungarian Academy of Science (Budapest) I researched EU-Russia energy relations, the frozen conflicts in the post-Soviet space and the issue of ballistic missile defence in Europe. I also wrote studies for the Institut für Europäische Politik (Berlin) and Affarinternazionali (Rome). Furthermore, I am a regular contributor to the Italian online journals Meridiani Affari Internazionali and Instoria.
Prior to joining the EXACT Ph.D. programme, I graduated from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna with a Master's degree in International Studies (2008-2010). I also have a Bachelor degree in Modern History and German Language and Literature from Oxford University (2004-2008). In addition, I attended study programs at the Diplomatic Academy of Moscow, the universities of Trier and Bremen and the United World College of the Adriatic, where I obtained the International Baccalaureate. In 2009-2010 I was President of the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna's Student Initiative, focusing on student welfare, the organization of a conference on nuclear non-proliferation, the Academy's 2010 charity ball and several sport activities.
Furthermore, I worked as an intern at the Action against Terrorism Unit of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe and at the Vienna-based public affairs consultancy Human Dynamics.
| October 2010 – February 2011 | University of Cologne |
| March 2011 – October 2011 | Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA), Brussels |
| November 2011 – March 2012 | Institute for World Economics (IWE), Budapest |
| April 2012 – September 2013 | University of Edinburgh |
Title of research project: Divided history, divisive foreign policy? Policy makers' perceptions of Russia in EU member states
Supervisor: Professor John Peterson (University of Edinburgh) and Professor Wolfgang Wessels (University of Cologne)
My dissertation investigates how policy-makers' perceptions of Russia in EU Member States contribute to shape European foreign policy toward the Kremlin. Based on the findings of social constructivist research, the dissertation argues that the role played by the "Russia discourse" in national identity construction influences both policy-makers' perceptions of Russia and their foreign policy attitudes toward the Kremlin. Therefore, the analysis will first examine the role of the "Russia discourse" in national identity construction in selected EU member states - those that have had a very active and influential foreign policy toward Russia, namely Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Poland and the Baltic States. In order to pursue this analysis, special attention will be devoted to post-1945 memory politics, which profoundly influenced national identity formation in European states.
The empirical part of the dissertation will analyze policy-makers' perceptions of Russia during recent international events in which Russia played a key role, including the Second Chechnya War, the colour revolutions in the post-Soviet space, the energy crises with Ukraine (in 2006 and 2009) and the August 2008 war between Russia and Georgia. The main focus will be on the perceptions of key foreign policy makers in the selected countries, namely heads of states and governments and foreign ministers. The dissertation will analyze the relationship between the "Russia discourse" in national identity construction and policy-makers' perceptions of Russia in the four case studies specified above. Furthermore, it will attempt to assess the impact of diverging perceptions on the formulation of a united European foreign policy toward Russia.
As far as methodology is concerned, discourse analysis will be used to investigate the role played by the "Russia discourse" in national identity construction and policy makers' perceptions of Russia. Policy makers' interviews and official statements constitute the main sources for this analysis.
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