Dr Chiara Loda

Research Interests

Foreign policy theory, post-Soviet area, conflict mediation, security studies.

Background & Qualification

Chiara completed her PHD thesis at Dublin City University in September 2017. As part of her research, she spent six months living and working in Tbilisi. Additionally, she conducted fieldwork also in Armenia and Azerbaijan. Formerly, Chiara obtained both her B.A. (2007-2010) and Masters (2010-2012) in International Relations and Diplomatic Affairs at University of Bologna (Summa cum laude). In the meanwhile, she spent significant time in external academic institutions as an exchange student; e.g at UCC (Ireland, 2009-2010), UW-Madison (US, Fall semester 2011) and JHU SAIS Bologna Centre (Spring semester 2012). In addition to that, she was the recipient of different “Youth in Action” mobility grants.

Research Title

Foreign policy behaviour of South Caucasian states

Research Overview

Chiara’s work focuses on Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, three countries that maintain relations, albeit different in nature and extent, with various external actors. This pattern, given by a mix of systemic constraints and in-state choices cannot be summarized by labels such as “pro-EU” or “pro-Russian”. Also, these countries are often attributed anthropic features (like self-confident, cautious…). By focusing on specific case studies, this piece of research aims at shedding light over it. The primary method used is discourse analysis, complemented by expert interviews.