Prof. Dr. Elena Atanassova is an Associate Fellow within the Global Fellowship Initiative of the GCSP. Elena Atanassova-Cornelis is a Professor of International Politics of the Asia-Pacific at the University of Antwerp and the Université Catholique de Louvain, both in Belgium. She is also the Japan Chair at the International Center for Defence and Security (ICDS) in Tallinn, Estonia, as well as an Adjunct Professor at the Brussels School of Governance of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Previously Elena Atanassova-Cornelis was 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; identity politics and regional security in Northeast Asia; geopolitics of the Taiwan Strain and the Korean Peninsula, as well as ASEAN-led regional multilateralism and EU-Asia relations. Elena Atanassova-Cornelis has authored numerous academic articles, book chapters, briefing papers and policy reports, and 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, East Asian and other countries’ government and military officials, diplomats, civil servants and business representatives.