Dr. Salome Minesashvili

Post-Doctoral Researcher

Email: minesashvili@uni-bremen.de






 

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Current Research Project (2025-2028)
“Changing EU policies in times of war: How increasing EU acceptance affects European identities in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine?”
 
Research Interests:

• EU-Eastern Neighbourhood relations
• Transformation processes in the former Soviet Union
• Foreign policy analysis
• Identity politics
• Soft power politics

 

Education

2015 – 2019   PhD Political Science, Free University of Berlin. Topic: "European identity discourses beyond community: Change under crises in Georgia and Ukraine".
 
2011 – 2012   MSc International Political Theory, University of Edinburgh.
 
2010 – 2013   MSc Transformation in the South Caucasus, Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University.
 
09/2006 – 08/2010   BA International Relations, Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University.
 

Work Experience

2025-present    Post-doctoral researcher, Research Centre for East European Studies (FSO) at the University of Bremen and ETH Zurich, funded under Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships.

2013 – 2025   Researcher and research coordinator, Georgian Institute of Politics (GIP).
 
2013 – 2025   Independent Researcher: Freedom House (USA), V-Dem Institute (Sweden), Polis (Germany), Norwegian Institute of International Affairs NUPI (Norway), New Europe Center (Ukraine), Strategeast (USA).                              
 
2021 – 2022   Researcher at the German-Ukrainian Researchers Network (GURN) project, Institute for European Politics (IEP), Berlin.
 
2019 – 2020   Programme Assistant at the PhD Support Programme EUCACIS, Centre international de formation europèenne (CIFE), Berlin.
                                  
2013   Research Fellow at the Foreign and Security Program, Center for Social Sciences (CSS), Tbilisi.                             
 
2011   Research Fellow, Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), Tbilisi.
                                
 
Teaching

2023 – 2025    International Relations Theories and Negotiations, École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP), Berlin.
                               
2019 – 2025    Introduction to Poitics, lÉcole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP), Berlin.
                       
2023   Regional Affairs of Eurasia, Technische Universität Dresden.
                                 
2017 – 2018   Regional Politics in Eurasia, Free University Berlin.
                                 
 
Selected Publications
 
Monographs
 
Minesashvili, S. 2022. European identities during wars and revolutions: change during crises in Georgia and Ukraine. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
 
Articles and Book Chapters
 
Wilhelmsen, J. and Minesashvili, S. 2025. Proxy games and freezing conflict: Trilateral identifications, fear and agency in Russian-Georgian relations post-Crimea. Communist and Post-Communist Studies. https://doi.org/10.1525/cpcs.2025.2688940
 
Kakachia, K., Minesashvili, S., Kandelaki, S. and Lebanidze, B. 2025. Contested securitization of migration in the post-Soviet space: The case of Russian migrants in Georgia. International Spectator, 60(2): 114-129.
 
Minesashvili, S. Labarre F. and Jolicoeur, P. 2023. Dealing with Russia: Georgia`s endeavour to escape Trampling. In: Roberge, I., Park, N. and Klasse, T. R. (eds.). Asymmetric neighbours and international relations: Living in the shadow of elephants. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
 
Minesashvili, S. 2023. Policy analysis toolbox. In: Melnyk, L. and Christoph, L. (eds.). Berlin: Institute of European Politics. Chapter 1, 2 and 4 (co-authored).
Minesashvili, S. 2022. Before and after 2014: Russo-Ukrainian conflict and its impact on European identity discourses in Ukraine. Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 23(3): 461-487.
 
Minesashvili, S. 2022. The Georgian Orthodox Church as a foreign policy actor. In: German, T., Jones, S.F. and Kakachia, K. (eds.). Georgia`s foreign policy in the 21^st century: Challenges for a small state. London: I.B. Tauris.
 
Minesashvili, S. 2021. Europe in Georgia`s identity discourse: Contestation and the impact of external developments. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 54 (1-2): 128-155.
 
Kakachia, K., Minesashvili, S. and Kakhishvili, L. 2018. Change and continuity in the foreign policies of small states: elite perceptions and Georgia`s foreign policy towards Russia. Europe-Asia Studies, 70 (5), 814-831.
 
Minesashvili, S. 2017. Orthodoxy as soft power in Russia-Georgia relations. In: Joedicke, A. (ed.). 2017. Religion and soft power in the South Caucasus. Routledge.
 
Minesashvili, S. 2017. Well-being and migration. In: Zarembo, K. (ed.). 2017. Ukrainian generation: attitudes and values. Kyiv: New Europe Center. 
 
Minesashvili, S. 2016. Belonging and alterity in Georgia`s foreign policy. In: Kakachia, K. and Markarov, A. (eds.). 2016. Values and identity as sources of foreign policy in Armenia and Georgia. Tbilisi: Universal. 
 
Kakachia, K. and Minesashvili, S. 2015. Identity politics: exploring Georgian foreign policy behavior. Journal of Eurasian Studies, 6 (2), 171-180.
 
Minesashvili, S. and Kakhishvili, L. 2015. Georgia: foreign policy identity in the domestic arena as a subject of contestation. Caucasus Analytical Digest, 77.