Visiting Scholar

Alexandra Gheciu is a Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and Associate Director of the Centre for International Policy Studies, University of Ottawa, Canada. Her research interests are in the fields of international security, international institutions, Euro-Atlantic relations, global governance and the liberal order, the Global Right, state (re)building, and International Relations theory.

Alexandra's publications include, in addition to articles in leading academic journals, several books: NATO in the ‘'New Europe': The Politics of International Socialization After the Cold War:(Stanford University Press, 2005); Securing Civilization? (Oxford University Press, 2008), The Return of the Public in Global Governance (co-edited with Jacqueline Best, Cambridge University Press, 2014 and 2015); and, more recently, Security Entrepreneurs: Performing Protection in Post-Cold War Europe (Oxford University Press, 2018); and The Oxford Handbook of International Security (co-edited with William Wohlforth, Oxford University Press, 2018). 

She is currently working on several research projects sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, including new book, entitled Cultural Geopolitics, in collaboration with Prof. Rita Abrahamsen, Prof. Jean-Francois Drolet, and Prof. Michael Williams. 

Alexandra Gheciu is the winner of several national and international awards, including, most recently, the 2022 MINDS senior research fellowship offered by Canada’s Department of National Defence (in collaboration with the NATO Defence College).

Prior to joining the University of Ottawa, she was a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, and a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. She has also been a Senior Research Associate with the Changing Character of War Programme (Oxford University), a Visiting Professor at Sciences Po, Paris and the Ca' Foscari University of Venice, and is an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI, London). In addition, she has served as Associate Editor for the journal Security Studies, and is currently an editorial board member for the European Journal of International Security; Security Studies; Contemporary Security Policy; Politics, Anthropological Research, International problems and Social Sciences.

Alexandra has also written several policy briefs and has been involved in numerous briefing sessions with Canadian, British and American policy-makers as well as European Union (EU), NATO and OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) officials.
She is currently working on several research projects on international security and the evolution of the EU in the 21st Century.

Areas of Expertise
Multilateralism and International Institutions: NATO, European Union, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, United Nations
Global governance
International Security
Norm dissemination and international socialization
Euro-Atlantic relations
Liberal Order
European Integration
Post-Conflict Reconstruction

Selected Degrees

• Ph.D.  Political Science (International Relations, Summa Cum Laudae), Cornell University, Department of Government.  
• M.A., Political Science (Summa Cum Laudae), Cornell University, Department of Government.
• Hon. B.A., Political Science (Summa Cum Laudae), York University.

Webpage: https://alexandragheciu.ca/