Professor of international relations at the University of Athens

Theodore A. Couloumbis, is also Vice-President at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), after being Member of the Board of Directors and Director-General for several years. In 1995-96 he was a senior fellow with the United States Institute of Peace and in 2006-2007 a policy scholar with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. His work focuses on conflict resolution in the post-Cold War international setting and on aspects of Greek foreign policy. He is co-author (with James H. Wolfe) of a well-known text book, International Relations: Power and Justice, Prentice Hall, 4th ed. 1990, author of US, Greece and Turkey: The Troubled Triangle (Praeger,1983) and co-editor of the new Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies (Frank Cass and ELIAMEP). His more recent publications include the Greek Junta Phenomenon (Pella, 2004) and a co-edited volume, Greece in the 20th Century (Frank Cass, 2005). He served as president of Eliamep in Athens (l993-95), president of the Institute for Balkan Studies in Thessaloniki (1988-90) and president of the Hellenic Society for International Law an International Relations (1985-87). In the years 1965-83, Couloumbis was professor of international relations at the American University’s School of International Service in Washington DC where he received several awards for outstanding teaching. From 1983 to 1989 he was professor of international relations at the School of Law of the University of Thessaloniki, moving to the University of Athens early in 1990. In addition to his scholarly output, he is a regular columnist and frequent contributor to Kathimerini. He holds B.A./ (1956) and M.A./ (1958) degrees in political science from the University of Connecticut and a Ph.D./ (1963) in international relations from the American University.

Director of Research, Program Manager

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Dr. Armakolas manages the Athens Working Group and assigns and edits the research team's output.

He lectures at the University of Macedonia and the University of Athens’ MA Programme in SE European Studies and has taught at Peloponnese, Aegean and Panteion universities. He has won the John Burton Prize (1998) and received a grant from the Alexander Onassis Public Benefit Foundation. Prof. Armakolas holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, an MA in International Relations from the University of Kent and a first degree in International Studies and Political Science from Panteion University in Athens. He has also worked as a consultant for projects for organizations such as USAID in Bosnia.

Dr. Armakolas speaks Greek, English, Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian.

Dr Spyros Economides is Senior Lecturer in International Relations and European Politics in the European Institute at the London School of Economics, Deputy Director of its Hellenic Observatory and a founding member of its research unit on South East Europe, ‘LSEE’. He has been a Research Associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords EU Committee in its report, ‘Responding to the Balkan Challenge: The Role of EU Aid’. His publications include: UN Interventionism: 1991-2004 (edited with Mats Berdal, 2007); and The Economic Factor in International Relations (with Peter Wilson, 2001). He is currently writing on the EU’s Balkan experience since 1991.

Ruby Gropas is Lecturer in International Relations at the Law Faculty of the Democritus University of Thrace (Komotini) and Research Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP).Ruby holds a Bachelor degree in Political Science from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (1994(, MA in European Studies from the University of Leuven, MPhil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge (New Hall). She was awarded her doctorate degree from the History Faculty of the University of Cambridge for her dissertation on foreign policy and human rights (2000). She has done research work on asylum and migration issues for UNHCR in Brussels and has worked for McKinsey & Co. in their Zurich and Athens offices (2000-2002). As part of the ELIAMEP team, she works on European integration and foreign policy, Transatlantic relations, human rights, migration and multiculturalism. She was Managing Editor of the Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies (Taylor & Francis) between January 2006 and October 2009. Ruby has also taught at the University of Athens and at College Year in Athens. She was Southeast Europe Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC in 2007 and again in 2009. She is Vice-President of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation Scholars’ Association since June 2009, and Member of the Academic Organisation Committee of the Global Forum for Migration and Development, Civil Society Days, Athens 2009. Recent publications include: Η Μετανάστευση στην Ενωμένη Ευρώπη (Edited with A. Triandafyllidou), Athens: Kritiki Publications 2009, European Immigration: A Sourcebook (Edited with A. Triandafyllidou), London: Ashgate 2007, Human Rights and Foreign Policy, Bruyant -Σάκκουλας 2006.

His papers have appeared in edited books and in periodicals such as Democratization, Review of International Affairs, International Journal, Turkish Studies, etc. His latest books include Theory and Reform in the European Union, (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1999, and 2nd revised edition 2002); and NATO and the New Security Paradigm, (London, Frank Cass 2002). With Mustafa Aydin he has edited Turkish-Greek Relations: The Security Dilemma in the Aegean, London, Routledge, 2004.

• Greece in a Changing Europe, (συνεπιμελητής, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1996).
• NATO in the New European Order, (London, Macmillan, 1996).
• Theory and Reform in the European Union, (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1999, and 2nd revised edition 2002).
• NATO and the New Security Paradigm: Power, Strategy, Order and the Transatlantic Link, (London, Frank Cass 2002).
• International Security Today: Post-9/11 Threats and Regional Challenges, (SAM, 2005).
• Turkish-Greek Relations: The Security Dilemma in the Aegean, (συνεπιμελητής, New York/London, Routledge, 2004).
• Multilateralism and Security Institutions in a Era of Globalization, (συνεπιμελητής, New York/London, Routledge, 2008).

Panayotis Tsakonas is Associate Professor of International Relations and Security Studies in the Department of Mediterranean Studies, University of the Aegean. He has held research posts at NATO, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University and the Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University. He served as special advisor at the Greek Ministries of National Defense and Foreign Affairs. He is co-director of the book series: International and European Studies (Gutenberg Publications) and co-editor of the academic journal: Hellenic Studies/Etudes.

His articles, book reviews and contributions in edited volumes have been published in several European countries, Canada, the United States and New Zealand and in professional journals, including: Journal of Turkish Studies, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, Millennium, Politics: The Journal of the British Political Studies Association, Journal of Southeast Europe and Black Sea Studies, Journal of Modern Hellenism, Security Dialogue etc.

His recent publications include: National Security Strategy. Building the Greek Model for the Twenty-First Century (Papazissis, Athens, 2005, with T. Dokos), Multilateralism and Security Institutions in the Era of Globalization.(Routledge, London and New York, 2007, co-editor with D. Bourantonis & K. Ifantis) and The Incomplete Breakthrough in Greek-Turkish Relations. Grasping Greece’s Socialization Strategy (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke and New York, 2010).