Dr Elia Bescotti
Elia Bescotti is a post-doctoral researcher at the Leibniz ScienceCampus. Since April 2025 he is developing a research project on “A new in-security architecture for Europe: postwar order and non-nuclear deterrence in Ukraine-Russia relations.” The project problematises: a) the conditions for mutual deterrence in the Ukraine-Russian relationship looking at deterrence theory in a comparative perspective with other protracted territorial conflicts (Korean Peninsula, Kashmir Region, Golan Heights) b) the nature of the Ukrainian-Russian relationship, in terms of discourses and practices, looking at the opposing identity discourses.
In December 2024 Elia earned his PhD in Political Science at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) defending his thesis on “Ontological in-securities in the post-Soviet politics of international law. Contested sovereignties between Georgia-Abkhazia, and Moldova-Transnistria.” The thesis an outcome of the research project “Between Conflict and Cooperation: the Politics of International Law in the Post-Soviet Space” carried out at IOS between 2019-2022 and funded by the BMBF. Elia also received financial support from the DAAD (2018-2019), and from the Wiener-Anspach Foundation (ULB) to complete his doctoral research at Russian and East European Studies, University of Oxford (Jan-Jun 2023). He is also an alumnus of the Graduate School of East and Southeast European Studies of the University of Regensburg.
From April 2025: Postdoctoral Researcher at Leibniz ScienceCampus Regensburg
October 2019–December 2024: PhD in Political Science, Université Libre de Bruxelles
April 2020–December 2024: Doctoral Associate, Graduate School of East and Southeast European Studies, University of Regensburg (GSOSES-UR)
January 2023–June 2023: Recognised Student, Wiener-Anspach Fellow, Russian and East European Studies (REES), Oxford School of Global and Area Studies (OSGA), University of Oxford
April 2019 – December 2022: Research Associate, Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS), Regensburg
October 2018 – March 2019: DAAD Visiting Scholar, Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS), Regensburg
2015–2017: M.A. in International Relations, University of Florence, and M.A. in World Politics, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) – Double Degree
2012–2015: B.A. in International Sciences and European Institutions, University of Milan
- conflict dynamics and geopolitics of the post-Soviet space
- nuclear and conventional deterrence
- secession, recognition of states, and politics of international law
- critical security and sovereignty studies
- practice theory and discourse analysis in international relations
- nationalist and imperial approaches to international relations and geopolitics
(Forthcoming) Non-recognition of States: Transnistria, Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Northern Cyprus. In: Löhr, Isabella and Dietmar Müller, The Routledge Handbook of the History of International Law: Eastern Europe. Routledge: Abingdon and New York.
(Forthcoming 2025) Between Law, the International and the ‘Political’: Carl Schmitt in the Political Sciences. In: Coman, Ramona, and Christian Olsson, Sitting on the Shoulders of Giants? A Retrospective View on Innovation in Political Science. Brussels: Editions de l’Université de Bruxelles.
Review: Eugen Străuțiu, Steven D. Roper, William E. Crowther, Dareg Zabarah-Chulak, Victor Juc, and Robert E. Hamilton, eds. 2023. The Armed Conflict of the Dniester. Three Decades Later.New York et al.: Peter Lang (South-East European History 3). 254 pp., ISBN 9781636672502 (hardcover), ISBN 9781636672519 (PDF), ISBN 9781636672526 (ePUB), € 79.39 (hardcover) / € 79.39 (eBook), in Comparative Southeast European Studies, 73, 1, 2025
Sovereignty Through Practice. Multiscalarity, Reflexivity, and Interdisciplinarity.Edited by Elia Bescotti and Jon-Wyatt Matlack. Routledge studies in Statehood. Routledge: Abingdon and New York, 2024. ISBN: 9781032797625
Passportization: Russia’s “humanitarian” tool for foreign policy, extra-territorial governance, and military intervention (with Burkhardt, Fabian, Maryna Rabinovych and Cindy Wittke). In VerfaßungsBlog, 23/03/22, https://verfassungsblog.de/passportization/, DOI: 10.17176/20220323-121238-0
Passportization, Diminished Citizenship Rights, and the Donbas Vote in Russia’s 2021 Duma Elections (with Burkhardt, Fabian, Maryna Rabinovych and Cindy Wittke). In TCUP Report; Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program Ukrainian Research Institute Harvard University, January 2022, https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/76864
Die Rolle Transnistriens im Diskurs des Präsidentschaftswahlkampfs in der Republik Moldau. In Russland-Analysen, № 394, 2020, 20/11/2020, https://www.laender-analysen.de/russland-analysen/394/transnistrien-und-praesidentschaftswahlkampf-in-moldau/, DOI: 10.31205/RA.394.02
A Non-Resolution Limbo: Better Status Quo than Settled? Georgian Territorial Integrity, Russian Security Interests, and the Status of De Facto States in the Peace Process, in Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg / IFSH (Hrsg.), OSCE Yearbook 2019. Nomos: Baden-Baden, 2020, pp.151-162, DOI: 10.5771/9783748906421-151
Oltre l'Impero. La politica mediterranea dell'Italia fascista. In Eurasia. Rivista di Studi Geopolitici, 52, 4, 2018, pp. 23-44.