Professional Affiliation

Professor, University of Texas at San Antonio

Expert Bio

Boyka Stefanova is Professor in the Department of Political Science and Geography at the University of Texas, San Antonio. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Delaware (2004). Dr. Stefanova’s areas of specialization are European Politics, comparative regionalism, and democracy in Eastern Europe.  Her research interests focus on political conflict, territoriality and politics, majority-minority relations in the European Union, and global governance.

Dr. Stefanova has published four books in the area of comparative studies and issues in European integration, conflict resolution, and Eurasian geopolitics. Her most recent book, The European Union and Europe’s New Regionalism: The Challenges of Enlargement, Neighborhood, and Globalization (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) presents an analysis of the evolving nature of European regionalism in a global perspective. Dr. Stefanova is author of more than thirty articles and book chapters exploring a variety of topics in the area of political conflict, minority rights, European security, regionalism, and the geopolitics of energy. Her work has appeared in Asia Europe Journal, Electoral Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Journal of Common Market Studies, Nationalities Papers, Journal of Strategic Security, East European Politics & Societies, World Affairs, and Cornell International Law Journal, among others.

Dr. Stefanova participates in collaborative research projects and thematic studies involving scholars from a number of academic institutions and consortia in Europe. She is a Fulbright Senior Scholar and grant recipient through the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), and research networks.

Wilson Center Project

"Revisiting Russia’s Geopolitical Positioning in the Wake of the 2020 NATO Enlargement: Scaling Back or Expanding Russia’s Influence in the Western Balkans"

Project Summary

"The New Geopolitics of Russia’s Energy Policies from a European Perspective: The Southern Gas Corridor and the Natural Gas Trade of the Caspian Sea Region"

This project explores Russia’s energy policies in the Caspian Sea region in view of recent developments pertaining to the Southern Gas Corridor, the centerpiece of the energy security policy of the European Union. While Russia’s energy policies, including in the Caspian Sea region, are the object of significant scholarly and policy interest, they have not been systematically examined from a dynamic perspective. What lessons may be drawn from the long-term determinants of Russian energy policies in the natural gas market?  Should we expect Russia’s energy policy towards the countries in the Caspian Sea region to retain its power-based nature at all cost, or is it likely to change? Exploring Russia’s foreign policy alternatives from a dynamic perspective, relative to its long-term determinants and evolving policy developments in the EU natural gas market as a form of cross-regional trade, is the principal objective of this research.

Major Publications

The European Union and Europe’s New Regionalism: The Challenge of Enlargement, Neighborhood, and Globalization, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

The European Union beyond the Crisis: Evolving Governance, Contested Policies, and Disenchanted Publics, editor. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2014.

The Europeanization of Conflict Resolution: Integration and Conflicts in Europe from the 1950s to the 21^st Century. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011.

The War on Terror in Comparative Perspective:  U.S. Foreign and Security Policy after 9/11, editor (with Mark Miller). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Previous Terms

Title VIII Short-Term Scholar, 3/1/15 - 3/31/15, Kennan Institute, "The New Geopolitics of Russia’s Energy Policies from a European Perspective: The Southern Gas Corridor and the Natural Gas Trade of the Caspian Sea Region."