Foreign, Security and Defence Policy of the European Union and its Member States
Professor Dr. Sven Biscop obtained his degree in political science/public administration at Ghent University (Belgium) in 1998, winning the best thesis award for his work on European defence. Awarded the Paul-Henri Spaak PhD scholarship of the Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders, he defended his dissertation in 2002, published as Euro- Mediterranean Security: A Search for Partnership (Ashgate, 2003). Currently he is the director of the Europe in the World programme at Egmont – the Royal Institute for International Relations, the think tank associated with Belgian Foreign Affairs, which he joined in 2002. His research focuses on the foreign, security and defence policy of the European Union and its Member States. Sven also teaches at the Ghent University (since 2003) and at the College of Europe in Bruges (since 2007). He represents Egmont in the Higher Studies in Security and Defence, a course for security practitioners organized with the Belgian Royal Higher Institute for Defence, and is a member of the Executive Academic Board of the EU’s European Security and Defence College (ESDC). Sven chairs the jury of the annual European Defence Agency – Egmont PhD Prize in European Defence, Security & Strategy. Sven is a Senior Research Associate of the Centre for European Studies at the Renmin University of China (CESRUC) in Beijing (since 2010), and Associate Fellow of the Austria Institute for European and Security Policy (AIES) in Baden-bei-Wien (since 2011). He sits on the scientific councils of the Flemish Peace Institute (Brussels) and of the Institut d’Etudes Stratégiques de l’Ecole Militaire (IRSEM, Paris), and on the Strategic Advisors Group of the Atlantic Council (Washington). Member of the board of the Flemish United Nations Association, he also serves on the committee of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES). With Richard Whitman, Sven co-edits the European Strategy & Security book series for Routledge. He is the editor-in-chief of Egmont’s journal Studia Diplomatica and its Egmont Papers, and a member of the editorial board of the journals Internationale Spectator (Netherlands), European Security (UK), and The International Organisations Research Journal (Russia). His latest book is Grand Strategy in 10 Words – A Guide to Great Power Politics in the 21st Century (Bristol University Press, 2021). Sven has been honoured with the cross of Officer of the Order of the Crown of the Kingdom of Belgium and the Grand Decoration of Honour of the Republic of Austria. He lives in Brussels with his Taiwanese-Belgian husband Aberu, amidst a great many books, military paraphernalia, and chinoiseries. Unfortunately they travel too often to keep a cat.