Staff and Experts

Staff Profile:

Recent Commentary

• Power and Weakness in Putin’s Russia
  15 Mar 12
• How Putin ran out of ideas and won
  01 Mar 12
• Russia's liberal-nationalist cocktail: elixir of life or toxic poison?
  23 Feb 12
• The beginning of the end for Putin?
  06 Dec 11
• How the eurozone crisis affects EU power
  25 Nov 11

Read More > Commentary

Recent Blogs

• EU-Ukraine: from fatigue to irritation
  02 May 12
• The EU is showing its teeth
  16 Apr 12
• US-Russia: from reset to upset
  10 Apr 12
• Rogozin’s travails in Moldova
  02 Apr 12
• How China sees Russia
  28 Jun 11

Read More > Blogs

recent press

• Project Syndicate
  07 May 12
• World Politics Review
  04 May 12
• The Economist
  17 Apr 12
• World Politics Review
  17 Apr 12

Read More >

Nicu Popescu, PhD, is senior research fellow and head of ECFR's programme on Russia and Wider Europe. In 2010-2011 Nicu served as advisor on foreign policy and European integration to the Prime-Minister of Moldova where he dealt with a wide range of issues related to EU-Moldova relations, ranging from foreign policy aspects to domestic reforms such as air transport liberalisation and visa dialogue. He also published a book on EU foreign policy and the post-Soviet conflicts: Stealth Intervention (Routledge, 2009)

Before joining ECFR in 2007, Nicu was research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels (2005-2007) and visiting fellow at the EU Institute for Security Studies in Paris (2005). He holds a doctorate in International Relations from the Central European University in Budapest (Hungary). Nicu is also deputy chair of the Moldovan Foreign Policy Association.

Nicu runs a blog on the EU's neighbourhood and Russia for the EU Observer (in English) and a foreign policy blog in Romanian. He has also published op-eds in Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Kommersant (Russia), Die Welt, EU Observer, European Voice etc. 

Languages: English, French, Russian and Romanian.

Areas of expertise: developments in the post-Soviet space; EU relations with Russia and the Eastern neighbourhood (Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and the South Caucasus); the European Neighbourhood Policy; secessionist conflicts in Moldova and the South Caucasus.

Contact details: npopescu [at] gmail.com or +44 787 64 52 877

Twitter: Follow @nicupopescu

Book

EU Foreign Policy and Post-Soviet Conflicts: Stealth Intervention, Routledge, December 2010

ECFR publications:

Dealing with a post-BRIC Russia, November 2011, co-authored with Ben Judah and Jana Kobzova.

A chance to reform: how the EU can support evolution in Morocco, policy brief with Susi Dennison and JI Torreblanca, published May 2011

Turning presence into power: Lessons from the eastern neighbourhood, policy brief with Andrew Wilson, published May 2011

After the revolution: Europe and the transition in Tunisia, policy brief with Susi Dennison, Anthony Dworkin and Nick Witney, published March 2011

Supporting Moldova's democratic transition, policy memo, published 12 October 2009.

The limits of enlargement-lite: European and Russian power in the troubled neighbourhood, report, published 16 June 2009.

Can the EU win peace in Georgia?, policy brief, published 25 August 2008.

A power audit of EU-Russia relations, report, published 7 November 2007.

Other recent publications include:

'From Flirt to Marriage: the Rapprochement between Russian democrats and nationalists', Journal of Democracy, forthcoming.  

How to Influence Neighbors IP Global (August 2011, co-author)

'The EU and Civil Society in the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict', in Nathalie Tocci (ed.)  The European Union, Civil Society and Conflict, Routledge 2011.

'Russia and EU’s Competitive Neighbourhood', cu-authored with Jana Kobzova and Andrew Wilson in Alexander Astrov (ed), Great Power (Mis)Management: The Russian-Georgian War and its Implications for Global Political Order, Ashgate 2011, pp.79-102. 

“EU and the Eastern Neighbourhood: Reluctant Involvement in Conflict Resolution”, European Foreign Affairs Review 14:4, pp. 457-477, 2009.    

Re-setting the Eastern Partnership in Moldova, Policy Brief 199, Centre for European Policy Studies, November 2009, Brussels.

“European and Russian Neighbourhood Policies Compared”, cu-authored with Andrew Wilson in Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 9:3, 2009, pp. 317 – 331.

The Future of EU-Russia Relations: A Way Forward in Solidarity and Rule of Law, Briefing Paper, European Parliament, February 2009. 

"Internationalizing the Georgia-Abkhazia Conflict Resolution Process: Why a Greater European Role is Needed", GMF Policy Brief; with Ron Asmus, Svante E. Cornell, and Antje Herrberg, June 2008.

European Neighbourhood Policy Two Years on: Time indeed for an ‘ENP Plus. Michael Emerson, Gergana Noutcheva, Nicu Popescu, CEPS Policy Brief 126, 21 March 2007, Brussels.

Europe's Unrecognised Neighbours: The EU in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. CEPS Working Document 260, 15 March 2007, Brussels.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia: independence or survival? in Pro et Contra Vol. 10, Nr. 5-6 (34), 2006, Carnegie Moscow Center, pp. 40-52. (In Russian)

Russia's Soft Power Ambitions. CEPS Policy Brief 115, 27 October 2006, Brussels.

Outsourcing De Facto Statehood: Russia and the Secessionist Entities in Georgia and Moldova. CEPS Policy Brief 109, 20 July 2006.

Moldova in Nations in Transit 2006, Freedom House, Co-authored with George Dura.