Prof. Dr. Elena Atanassova-Cornelis

Prof. Dr. Elena Atanassova-Cornelis is an Associate Fellow within the Global Fellowship Initiative of the GCSP. She is a Professor of International Politics of the Asia-Pacific at the University of Antwerp (UA) and the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), both in Belgium. She is also a Non-Resident Research Fellow at the International Center for Defence and Security (ICDS) in Tallinn, Estonia and a Visting Professor at Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific University in Japan.

Previously, Elena Atanassova-Cornelis was the Japan Chair at the ICDS in Tallinn, Estonia, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Kent in Brussels, Ghent University in Belgium and the Lille Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po Lille), France. She was also a Senior Associate Analyst at the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) in Paris, and a holder of the Taiwan Fellowship of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China on Taiwan. She was a recipient of the Monbusho Scholarship of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and pursued graduate studies at Sophia University in Tokyo. She holds a PhD in Japanese Studies from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. 

Her teaching and research interests include international relations in East Asia and the Indo-Pacific region. She focuses, in particular, on Japanese foreign and security policy; alliances, alignments and major power relations; regional security and geopolitics; multilateralism, security cooperation and EU-Asia relations. Elena Atanassova-Cornelis has authored numerous academic articles, book chapters, briefing papers and policy reports. She is regularly invited to deliver guest lectures and presentations at international conferences, high-level expert meetings and various universities in both Europe and Asia. She has extensive experience in professional and executive training on Asia-related topics in programmes designed for European, Asian and other countries’ government and military officials, diplomats, civil servants and business representatives.