ENSURE (European security revisited) is a Max Planck Research Group headed by Dr Carolyn Moser and funded by the Max Planck Society (2022-27). It explores and critically assesses the – potentially significant – reshaping of law and governance triggered by the European Union's normative and policy adjustment to increasingly harsh geopolitical realities.
ENSURE counts a handful of team members that all contribute to the success of the project.
Dr Carolyn Moser, Research Group Leader
Dr Carolyn Moser leads the ENSURE group. She conducts research in the field of international and European law, with a special focus on security and defence in Europe. Carolyn was trained in both law and political science at Sciences Po Paris and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University, USA), and holds a PhD from Utrecht University on EU civilian crisis management. She received several awards and distinctions for her research, notably the Otto-Hahn-Medal and the European Court of Auditors Award. Her interdisciplinary expertise is solicited also beyond academic circles, for instance by EU and international institutions (eg European Parliament; OSCE; World Bank) and in the media (eg ZDF; NDR; ORF; SRF; Deutschlandfunk). A full list of her publications can be found here.
Rocío Bargon Sánchez, Administrative Assistant
As an administrative assistant, Rocío Bargon Sánchez supports the ENSURE team with her linguistic skills, cultural competences, and organizational know-how. She holds a Double Master's Degree in specialised translation and multimedia translation from the Johannes Gutenberg University and the University of Burgundy. Before joining the group, Rocío taught German as a Foreign Language and worked as a freelance translator and subtitler. Within the framework of a Bluebook traineeship at the Directorate-General for translation of the EC, Rocío had the opportunity to become part of one of the biggest translation services in the world. Her working languages are German, Spanish, French, English, and occasionally Portuguese.
Nina Boy, Visiting Fellow
Dr Nina Boy joins the ENSURE group as a Max Planck Visiting Fellow in 2023. Her work focuses on interdisciplinary notions of security, particularly the nexus of financial, political and legal security. She is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Politics and International Studies (PAIS) Department at the University of Warwick and an Affiliated Researcher at the Kaete Hamburger Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies (CAPAS), Heidelberg University. She holds a PhD in Politics from Lancaster University and an MA in International Studies & Diplomacy from SOAS, University of London. She is Co-editor of the open-access journal Finance and Society. A full list of her publications is available here.
Felicitas Burst, Research Fellow
Felicitas Burst is a research fellow in the group. She studied law at the University of Heidelberg from 2014 to 2022, with a one-year intermittence at the University of Strasbourg. As a scholarship-holder of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, she investigated the sociology of law in an interdisciplinary research group led by Prof. Marauhn. Next to her solid knowledge of international law – her major – she enriches the team with practice insights gained through an internship at the Staatsministerium in Stuttgart and her Slavic language skills. She is particularly interested in understanding the field of maritime security and the actors and regimes involved in it.
Laurids Hempel, Research Assistant
Laurids Hempel joins the group as a research assistant. He has been studying law at the University of Heidelberg since 2018, including two semesters abroad at the University of Montpellier, where he focused on studies in international public law and constitutional law. The latter is also his major in his law studies. Following his fascination for politics and public law, he has already worked for one year in the Schleswig-Holsteinischer Landtag (State Parliament of Schleswig-Holstein) before beginning his studies. With his legal knowledge and insights gained into political decision-making processes, he is eager to assist the research of the group at the interface of international public law, European law, and national public law.
Lukas Märtin, Research Assistant
Lukas Märtin supports the group as a research assistant. He has been a law student at the University of Heidelberg since autumn 2017, with a one-year study abroad period at Sciences Po Paris. Motivated by his strong interest in European and international law, he interned at the European Parliament, in the cabinet of Advocate General Juliane Kokott at the CJEU and, moreover, reached the final round of pleadings of the renowned European Law Moot Court Competition in his role as Advocate General. Hence, he joins the team with useful practice insights into the law and governance of EU institutions and processes.
Yuliya Miadzvetskaya, Affiliated PhD candidate
Effi Spiegel, Research Assistant
Effi Spiegel has been studying law at the University of Heidelberg since 2019. In 2021, she spent a year at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, where she mainly followed courses on European law. Inspired by her academic experience in Paris, she interned at the German Ministry of Finance's Directorate-General for European Policies and at the Brussels office of a German law firm. Moreover, she is regularly involved in Model European Union projects, where she has been developing a particular interest in European security. She is therefore excited to build upon her so far established experience in an interdisciplinary context.
Dr Christian Schultheiss, Senior Research Fellow
Dr Christian Schultheiss is a Senior Research Fellow of the research group ENSURE. His research has specialized in ocean governance, conflict and maritime security with a focus on Asia. He conducts research on European security in the maritime domain. He was trained in International Relations and in International Law and holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Cambridge. He has had several field research positions in China, Japan, the Philippines and Singapore. He has been a policy advisor for the European External Action Service and advised the EEAS on a range of EU policy initiatives in the area of maritime security. His publications appeared in International Relations and in International Law outlets.
Dr Tarek Tutunji, Affiliated Researcher
Dr Tarek Tutunji is an affiliated senior research fellow whose research focusses on informal institutions in world politics, with a current focus on disinformation. Tarek received his PhD in Political Science in 2019 from Johns Hopkins University with a dissertation on the emergence of informal rules around propaganda and covert action during the Cold War.
PUBLICATIONS
TALKS & PRESENTATIONS
MEDIA & OUTREACH
