Madalina Dobrescu

About

Dr Madalina Dobrescu is Associate Professor of European Studies and Onsager Fellow. She has also been selected to take part in NTNU's prestigious Outstanding Academic Fellows Programme (2024-2028) which focuses on NTNU's foremost young research talents who have excelled internationally in their field of research.

She is the Principal Investigator and Scientific Coordinator of the Horizon Europe project REDEMOS (Reconfiguring EU Democracy Support? Towards a sustained demos in the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood). REDEMOS is a multi-annual research project with a budget of EUR3.6 million, involving 11 universities, research centers and one SME from across Europe, analysing EU democracy support policies towards Eastern Europe during 2010-2022 and developing an innovative policy toolkit for the EU.

Dr Dobrescu is also part of the Horizon Europe project REUNIR (Resilience, Enlargement, Union, Neighbourhood, International Relations) in which she co-leads a work package on communication whilst contributing to others. REUNIR is a multi-annual research project with a budget of EUR3 million, gathering 12 universities, research centers and think tanks from across Europe, examining how the EU can strengthen its foreign and security toolboxes to bolster the resilience and transformation of (potential) candidate countries in a new age of international relations.

Prior to joining NTNU, Dr Madalina Dobrescu held a number of teaching and research positions at prestigious universities and research centers. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow in International Relations at the Vienna School of International Studies, Max Weber Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the Florence-based European University Institute (EUI), and Research Fellow at the European Neighbourhood Policy Chair at the Natolin campus of the College of Europe. She also taught at King's College London and Royal Holloway (University of London) on a wide range of International Relations and European Studies subjects, including Foreign Policy Analysis, Comparative Politics of the European Union, European Integration and EU Foreign Policy.

Dr Dobrescu holds a PhD in European Studies from the London School of Economics and an MA in International Politics from the University of Manchester.

She works at the interface of International Relations (IR theory, International Peacekeeping, Conflict Resolution), including synergies between International Relations and Sociology and Social Psychology (Role theory, Social Identity theory); European Studies (EU Foreign, Security and Defence Policy, EU External Governance); and Eastern European and Post-Soviet Studies (with a focus on Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and the South Caucasus).

Publications

WORKING PAPERS

Dobrescu, Madalina (2019): "The European Neighbourhood Policy and Foreign Policy Cooperation: Why do ENP Partners Participate in CSDP Missions?". EUI Max Weber Programme Working Paper. Academic article

Dobrescu, Madalina (2015): "EU security practices in Eastern Europe: extending European peace or managing risks?". Europa-Kolleg Hamburg, Institute for European Integration, Discussion Paper No 2, February. Academic article

2018

Bouris, Dimitris; Dobrescu, Madalina. (2018) The EU and civilian missions in the neighbourhood. Routledge
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper

2017

Dobrescu, Madalina; Schumacher, Tobias; Stavridis, Stelios. (2017) Southern Europe: Portugal, Spain, Italy, Malta, Greece, Cyprus . Routledge
Chapter

Journal publications

Dobrescu, Madalina. (2023) Demokratiet er under angrep i Øst-Europa. Adresseavisen
Feature article
Dobrescu, Madalina. (2023) Explaining third-country participation in CSDP missions: the case of the association trio–Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. European Security
Academic article
Dobrescu, Madalina. (2023) Status Seeking through Peacekeeping: Ukraine’s Quest for a Positive Social Identity in the International System. Foreign Policy Analysis
Academic article
Dobrescu, Madalina. (2023) Between strategic neglect and geopolitical realities: Ukraine and North Africa in Light of Russian Aggression. Mediterranean Politics
Academic article
Dobrescu, Madalina. (2022) Putins fortelling om en ukrainsk «skitten bombe» bereder grunnen for et russisk atomangrep. Aftenposten (morgenutg. : trykt utg.)
Feature article
Dobrescu, Madalina; Schumacher, Tobias. (2020) The Politics of Flexibility: Exploring the Contested Statehood–EU Actorness Nexus in Georgia. Geopolitics
Academic article

Part of book/report

Bouris, Dimitris; Dobrescu, Madalina. (2018) The EU and civilian missions in the neighbourhood. Routledge
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
Dobrescu, Madalina; Schumacher, Tobias; Stavridis, Stelios. (2017) Southern Europe: Portugal, Spain, Italy, Malta, Greece, Cyprus . Routledge
Chapter

Outreach

2023

Interview

Dobrescu, Madalina. (2023) Uro i Moldova: Tror hovedstaden kan tas på 24 timer. VG VG [Newspaper] 2023-02-24

Språkvelger

Madalina Dobrescu