Robert F. Byrnes
Russian and East European Institute

My research interests focus on international relations with special emphasis on international security and foreign policy analysis. In my work – research, publications, and pedagogy – I have been primarily preoccupied with European security, broadly understood, and its Mediterranean and East-Central European aspects. I am also interested in Euro-Atlantic security and political cooperation in the context of global redistribution of power and Russia’s revisionist policy, in particular. Additionally, my research includes Poland’s foreign and security policy.

I have published numerous books and papers in Poland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, and Jordan. My most recent book Poland’s Security Policy: The West, Russia, and the Changing International Order was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2016. I have given lectures at various universities in Poland, the United States, Italy, Sweden, Serbia, Kosovo, Turkey, and India. In addition to research, I genuinely enjoy teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels. Among the courses I teach, there are: Theories of International Relations, Introduction to the Study of International Politics, International Politics, Poland’s Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Security, and Governance.

Along with my work in the academia, my interest in analyzing problems at the crossroads of politics, policy, and science comes through public service. I was appointed by the President of the Republic of Poland to serve as a member of the National Strategic Review Committee. I was a member and a Chairperson of the Council of Young Scientists of the Minister of Science and Higher Education and a two-term member of the Steering Committee of the Standing Group on International Relations, European Consortium for Political Research. Finally, I authored a number of expert opinions for Poland’s Ministry of Regional Development and National Security Bureau as well as the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.