Elena Stavrevska at IEP
Elena Stavrevska, SPES fellow from Macedonia, stayed at the IEP from 16 November to 12 December 2009. During this time she had the opportunity to meet many scholars and experts from German think tanks and foundations, as well as public institutions. Her Berlin research experience was also complemented by three conferences, a guest lecture (which she gave at the Potsdam University), as well as an expert workshop on the subject of her SPES project: Evaluating outcome sustainability of ESDP civilian missions: What role for local ownership?.
Elena divided her research trip into two parts. Skopje, Macedonia, was her first destination, where she spent 10 days, from 23 September to 3 October 2009, and conducted a number of interviews with scholars, political actors, as well as EU representatives. Her second trip, in accordance with the case studies in her SPES paper, was to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, which she spent on meetings with experts from ESDP mission, Bosnian police and actors form public institutions.
Elena holds a Bachelor of Laws degree in European Law from FON University in Skopje, Macedonia. During her undergraduate studies, she was an exchange student at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA, taking primarily International Relations and Security Studies courses, which affected her further choice of studies. Thus, Elena completed her Masters degree in International Relations and European Studies at the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary, with her M. A. thesis looking at strategic intelligence-sharing in the EU.
At the moment, Elena is a Doctoral Candidate in International Relations at CEU. Her dissertation focuses on peacebuilding in post-conflicts societies through major multilateral peace operations. To that end, the project analyzes the durability of liberal democratic peace in post-conflict countries and the role political autonomy of local decision-makers and grassroot peacebuilding activities have in making it.