Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Starter Grant Project, from sector funds of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), Budget: € 300.000 (2023–2027)
In this project, I am Co-Investigator, together with Chendi Wang (PI), Ben Crum, and Wolfgang Wagner. I lead the Work Package on “The Russia–Ukraine War and the Political Contestation of Foreign Policy”, contributed to the project proposal, and co-designed the project’s YouGov survey, fielded in September and October 2025 in the Netherlands and 11 other EU member states.
Project Summary: The Russian war against Ukraine, ongoing since February 24, 2022, has shattered the European security architecture. The war had an immediate impact on various policy domains, including refugee, energy, security, trade, foreign, and social policies. Since the outbreak of the war, a vast majority of European states have condemned Russia’s actions and have been actively supporting Ukraine with financial, humanitarian, political, and military assistance. These efforts have resulted in a complex set of relationships that impact a country’s fiscal policy, foreign and security policy, and related political representation issues. The NEST project examines these relationships along three pillars: Pillar I focuses on the political responses to the fiscal impact of the Ukraine crisis; Pillar II looks at the impact of the war in Ukraine on foreign policy orientations of European states, political parties and voters, and the division lines between them; Pillar III zooms in on strategies of political representation and justification that European politicians adopt in response to the Ukraine crisis. [see also the VU Amsterdam project page]