The Center for Statecraft and Strategic Communication announces postdoctoral and PhD fellows
In the fall of 2022, the Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy (AJI) opens up its doors. Constituent members of the international research consortium are the Center for Statecraft and Strategic Communication (CSSC) at the Stockholm School of Economics, the Centre for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge, the Centre for Grand Strategy at King’s College London, and the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
Through this four-university, transatlantic consortium, AJI will recruit, train, and mentor the next generation of historically-minded scholars and practitioners in statecraft, diplomacy, and strategy. To this end, the partnership supports the research and engagement of a cohort of up to thirty-six PhD and postdoctoral fellows across its member universities.
As part of this project, CSSC now announces three postdoctoral fellows and one PhD fellow. These will join AJI and the Stockholm School of Economics for the fall semester of 2022 to pursue historically informed research about strategic communication in statecraft. The incoming cohort of early-career scholars and their research projects are presented below.
Postdoctoral fellows
Matt Hefler
Hefler was awarded a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London in November 2020. With research interests in international history and intelligence studies, his dissertation examined clandestine diplomacy in Franco-British relations during World War II. Hefler’s postdoctoral project will examine secret intelligence and international diplomacy around the Middle East between the USA, Great Britain and France during 1945-1947.
Fredrik Sixtensson
Sixtensson was awarded a PhD in Ancient Greek from Uppsala University in November 2021. His dissertation examined the linguistic evolution of the Greek tripartite typology of constitutions, consisting of monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy, with special consideration of the Greek word dēmokratia. Sixtensson’s research focuses on the intersection between linguistics, political thought, and practical politics. His postdoctoral project will examine the expression of controversial values and opinions in the ancient Athenian democracy.
Klas A.M. Eriksson
Klas A.M. Eriksson completed a PhD in Economic History at Stockholm University in June 2022. During his PhD studies he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship that took him to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University where he, among other things, assisted Niall Ferguson in the work with the second volume of his biography of Henry Kissinger. At CSSC, Eriksson plans to research diplomatic history and Sweden’s role as a link between east and west during the Cold War.
PhD fellow
Mara Bălașa
Bălașa has recently finalized her her MSc in Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics, specializing in Applied Economic Analysis. She completed the Data Analytics Track and her thesis examined the environmental Kuznets curve for CO2 emissions in Romania between 1968 and 2018. Bălașa’s PhD project will examine the nexus between economic statecraft, free trade agreements and the environment, with a focus on European Union Member States.