Dr. Cornelia Baciu

Porträtfoto von Cornelia Baciu© Cornelia Baciu

Postdoctoral researcher at the Saarbrücken Graduate School for European Research

Political Science

Street address:
Saarbrücken Campus 
C5 3, Room 1.15
66123 Saarbrücken

Postal address:
Universität des Saarlandes
Cluster für Europaforschung | Nachwuchskolleg Europa
Postfach 15 11 50
66041 Saarbrücken
Germany

Email:cornelia.baciu(at)uni-saarland.de
Tel.: +49 (0)681 302-70460

 

Dr. Cornelia Baciu is a postdoctoral researcher at the Cluster for European Research (CEUS) at Saarland University and a guest researcher at the University of Copenhagen. Before beginning as an academic research associate at CEUS in August 2025, Baciu was a researcher (Forsker) at the Centre for Military Studies in the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen. She was also a Scandinavian Visiting Professor at the Institute for Social Sciences at Kiel University.  Previously, she was a postdoc at the Johns Hopkins University SAIS in Washington, DC, as well as at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg. Baciu has been a visiting scholar at the Syddansk Universitet in Odense, Denmark, Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and the United Nations in Vienna. She completed her doctorate at Dublin City University.

Shaped by her interdisciplinary education and diverse academic environments, Cornelia Baciu's work focuses on expressivist dimensions in international relations as well as the production of ontological security. Her current research project examines reactions to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine in the fields of security and criminal law. Through her research, Baciu aims to contribute new conceptual and methodological approaches to understanding entanglements between expressivism and global politics. 

Dr. Baciu is a part of the COST Action CA23129 – Peace Research Community Europe (PEACE) in the working group 'Europe, Peace & Security' (2025–2028). 

She is also a member of the Young Academy for Cultures and Societies Research at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Freiburg in Germany (2025–2028).

Rersearch interests
  • International relations theory
  • Norms and international conflict
  • Euro-Atlantic security architecture
  • Expressivism
  • Ontological security
Publications

Peer-reviewed journal articles

Baciu, Cornelia und Brent Steele. “Creating Ontological Security. Introduction to Special Issue.“ European Journal of International Security (2026): Online First. https://doi.org/10.1017/eis.2026.10078. 

Baciu, Cornelia und Reed, Kyle. “International organizations as places of remembrance: Norm legitimization through memory discourses.” Cooperation and Conflict (2026): Online First. https://doi.org/10.1177/00108367261429793 

Baciu, Cornelia. “Expressing Emotions and Ontological Security in International Organisations.“ The Hague Journal of Diplomacy 21, 1 (2026): 126-140. https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191X-bja10238.

Baciu, Cornelia. “Moral security of the self and other: Review of Floyd, The Duty to Secure.” Journal of International Political Theory 0,0 (2026): Online First. https://doi.org/10.1177/17550882251407979.

Baciu, Cornelia. “Expressivism and Punishment in International Relations.” Review of International Studies (2025): Online First, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210524000949

Baciu, Cornelia; Falk Ostermann und Wolfgang, Wagner. „The Crisis of Liberal Interventionism and the Return of War.” Politics & Governance 12, (2024): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.7865. 

Baciu, Cornelia und Anders Wivel. “Junior Allies in War of Choice. Parliamentary Debates in Danish and Romanian Parliaments on the Iraq War.” European Journal of International Security 9, 2 (2024): 241–262. https://doi.org/10.1017/eis.2023.33.   

Baciu, Cornelia.  „Sinn von Sein. Foreign Policy, Memory and Changing Imaginaries and Practices of Neutrality in the Second Republic.” Austrian Journal of Political Science 51, 4 (2023): 26–32. https://ozp-journal.uibk.ac.at/OEZP/article/view/4072/3184. 

Baciu, Cornelia. “Interpolarity: Re-Visiting Security and the Global Order.” Defence Studies 21, 4 (2022): 571–590. https://doi.org/10.1080/14702436.2022.2110482.

Baciu, Cornelia und Klaus Kotzé. „Mimesis and Status Seeking in the Global Order. BRICS’s Summit Diplomacy and Performative Rhetoric.” Defence Studies 21, 4 (2022): 709–735. https://doi.org/10.1080/14702436.2022.2110484. 

Peters-Ewers, Nele Marianne und Cornelia Baciu. “Differentiated Integration and Role Player in Multilateral Security Orders. A Comparative Study of France, Germany, Ireland and Romania.” Defence Studies 21, 4 (2022): 666–688. https://doi.org/10.1080/14702436.2022.2110475. 

Baciu, Cornelia und Dominika Kunertova. ”Evolutionarily Stable Global Orders: Co-Relational Power and Multilateral Security Organisations.” Journal of Contemporary European Research 18, 1 (2022): 149–165. https://doi.org/10.30950/jcer.v18i1.1210. 

Baciu, Cornelia. “Beyond the Emergency Problematique. How Do Security IOs Respond to Crises – A Case Study of the NATO Response to COVID-19.” Journal of Transatlantic Studies 19 (2021): 261–281.

Baciu, Cornelia. “Collaborative Security Regimes Post-Brexit – Estimating the Potential for Convergence Based on the Overlap in National Strategic Documents.” Comparative Strategy 39, 6 (2020): 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/01495933.2020.1826845. 

Baciu, Cornelia und Friede Alexandra. “The EU’s CSDP/CFSP in 2030. Towards an Alternative Vision of Power.” New Perspectives 28, 2 (2020): 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/2336825X20935245. 

Baciu, Cornelia. “Security Transformation and Multilateralism: The Future of Irish Defence and Foreign Policy.” Irish Studies in International Affairs 29 (2018): 97–117. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/423/article/810144/pdf. 

 

Special editions in academic journals

Baciu, Cornelia, Wolfgang Wagner und Falk Ostermann. “From Kabul to Kyiv. Liberal Interventionism and the Return of War.” Politics and Governance, Issue 12, 1 (2024). https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.i375. 

Baciu, Cornelia und Delphine Deschaux-Dutard. “Interpolarity. Re-Visiting Security and the Global Order. Defence Studies, 21, 4 (2022): 571–742. https://doi.org/10.1080/14702436.2022.2110482. 

 

Monographs and edited volumes

Baciu, Cornelia. Civil-Military Relations and Global Security Governance. Strategy, Hybrid Orders and the Case of Pakistan. London: Routledge, 2021.

Baciu, Cornelia und John Doyle (Hrsg). Peace, Security and Defence Cooperation in Post-Brexit Europe. Heidelberg: Springer International Publishing, 2019. 

 

Publications in edited volumes 

Baciu, Cornelia. „Covid-19, Crisis Management, and Civil Emergency Response.” In NATO Oxford Handbook, hg. von Mark Webber und James Sperling, 467–480. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025.

Baciu, Cornelia und Alexander Høgsberg Tetzlaff. Den nukleare dimension af krigen i Ukraine.  In Efter freden - Ukrainekrigens betydning for dansk og europæisk sikkerhed, hg. von Kristian Søby Kristensen und Niels Byrialsen, 100–107. Kopenhagen: Djøf Forlag, 2022. 

Baciu, Cornelia und John Doyle. „Conclusion: The Future of Europe-Towards a New Paradigm of European Security and Resilience”. In Peace, Security and Defence Cooperation in Post-Brexit Europe, hg. von Cornelia Baciu und John Doyle, 219–224. Heidelberg: Springer International Publishing, 2019. 

Baciu, Cornelia. „Democratic Oversight and International Organisations. Assessing the Strategic Implications of the ‘Triple-Lock’ for Ireland’s Engagement in International Peace Missions”. In Defence Forces Review, hg. von Paul Hegarty and Caitriona Down, 114–121. Dublin: Defence Forces Printing Press, 2020. 

Baciu, Cornelia. „From Guardians of the State to Guardians of Democracy? Institutional Change and Military Democratization in Insecure States”.  In Guns & roses. Comparative civil-military relations in the changing security environment, hg. von Steven Ratuva, Radomir Compel und Sérgio Luiz Cruz Aguilar, 365–389. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

Presentations and conferences

2026

  • EWIS Workshop “Ontological Security in Geopolitical Times“, Izmir School of Economics, Türkei (1.–3. Juli)
  • Projektworkshop “The Party-Political Contestation of the Liberal International Order. The Changing Foreign Policy Space in Europe and East Asia”, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Niederlande (30. Juni – 1. Juli)
  • Central and East European International Studies Association (CEEISA) Tagung “Contesting Imperialism(s)“, University of Sarajevo und Burch University, Bosnien und Herzegowina (17.–19. Juni)
  • British International Studies Association (BISA) Jahrestagung “Is International Studies ready for what comes next? New thinking, new directions“, Brighton, UK (3.–5. Juni)
  • COST Action PEACE Workshop “Revisiting the European Security Architecture”, Kaunas University, Litauen (21./22. Mai)
  • ISA Jahrestagung „Back to the Fundamentals: Rethinking Knowledges, Practices, and Imaginaries of the World“, Columbus, Ohio, USA (21.–25. März)
  • Gastvorträge “Feminist Security Studies” und “The EU as a Criminal Justice Actor”, Ivan Franko National University Lviv, Ukraine (1.–6. März)

2025

  • Workshop “Developments in World Politics: Democracy, Conflicts and Polarization” - Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca, Romania (5. November)
  • Workshop of the German-Ukrainian Historical Commission 2025 – University of Chernivtsi, Ukraine (25.–27.  September)
  • EISA 2025: 18th Pan-European Conference on International Relations – University of Bologna, Italy (26.–29. August)
  • EWIS 2025: 12th European Workshops in International Studies  – Jagiellonian University, Poland (2.–5. Juli)
  • BISA 2025: 50th Anniversary Convention (online participation) – Belfast, UK (18.–20. Juni)
  • Vortrag:  Re-Imagining Peace - Expressivism and the Formation of Security Affects in Euro-Atlantic Practices, COST Action PEACE Inaugural Conference – Brussels, Belgium (8.–9. Mai)
  • International Studies Association 66th Annual Convention “Reconnecting International Studies” – Chicago, IL, USA  (2.–5. März)
  • Workshop: Creating Ontological Security in International Relations – Universität Kiel, Kiel, Deutschland (organisiert mit Brent Steele (15.–16.  Jan 2025))

2024

  • Seminar: Sanctioning Atrocity. Punitivity, Panopticon and Norm Expressivism in International Relations, Universität Kiel (11. Juli)
  • CEEISA-ISA Joint Conference „Knowing the global-local: Imagining pasts, debating futures” – University of Rijeka, Croatia (18.-22. Juni)

  • International Theory Workshop, CEEISA-ISA Convention – Isle of Cres, Croatia (17. Juni 2024)

  • International Studies Association Annual Convention –  San Francisco, USA (3.-6. April) 

  • Pre-ISA Workshop „Ontological Security in the Global Order“–  San Francisco, USA (mit Brent Steele) (2. April 2024)
  • DVPW Conference: Nichts steht mehr fest? Plurale Perspektiven auf politische Kontestation – Universität Kiel, Deutschland (3.-4. Februar)

2023

  • Presentation: „The War in Ukraine and the International Nuclear Order“, NATO Nuclear Symposium – Lissabon, Portugal (26.-27.  September)
  • The 16th EISA Pan-European Conference on International Relations – University of Potsdam, Germany (mit Brent Steele) (5.-9. September)
  • Annual Millennium Symposium „Remapping the Critical: Imagining Anti-Hierarchical Futures for International Studies – London School of Economics, UK (19.-20. Oktober)
  • Swiss Political Science Association Annual Conference – University of Basel, Switzerland (2.-3. Februar)
  • DVPW IB-Sektionstagung – Zeppelin Universität, Friedrichshafen, Germany (14.-16. Juni)
  • Workshop „Zur Verflechtung von nationalen und internationalen Erinnerungsdiskursen: Perspektiven aus Geschichte und Gegenwart – Zentrum für Militärgeschichte und Sozialwissenschaften der Bundeswehr, Potsdam (19. Mai)

2022

  • IB Section Theme Conference „Zeitenwende – A Turning Point in German IR?” – University of Hamburg (11.-12. November)
  • Workshop: International Organisations Under Pressure – Bonn Collegium, Germany (18.-19. Juli)  
  • Workshop: The Crisis of Liberal Interventionism and the Return of War – University of Copenhagen, Denmark (mit Wolfgang Wagner und Falk Ostermann) (4.-5. Juli 2022)
  • BISA Jahrestagung “Can the World Survive” – University of Newcastle, UK(15.-17. Juni)
  • ISA Jahrestagung „A Wider Discipline For A Smaller World“ – Nashville, Tennessee, USA (28. März-2. April)  
  • BISA Roundtable: „What does the withdrawal from Afghanistan mean for peacebuilding, multilateral institutions and the region?“ – online (Organisatorin) (24. November)
  • 28th Scientific Congress of the German Political Science Association – online (14. September)
  • EISA 14th Pan-European Conference on International Relations –  online (14. September)
  • UACES 51st Annual Conference 2021 – online (8. September)
Teaching

Summer Semester 2026

Winter Semester 2025/2026

 

Teaching at other universities

Universität Kiel (2024-2025)

  • MA-Kurs: Versicherheitlichungstheorie und kritische Sicherheitsstudien 

  • MA-Kurs: Strafe und Sanktionen in Internationalen Beziehungen 

  • MA-Blockseminar: Memory and Foreign Policy

  • MA-Gastvorlesung: Die Euro-Atlantische Sicherheitsordnung 

Universität Kopenhagen (2022-2024)

  • MA-Kurs: Norms and Contestation in Regional and Global Security 

  • MA-Gastvorlesung: Feminist Security Studies

  • MA-Kurs: Security Studies

National School of Political and Administrative Studies of Bucharest (2023)

  • PhD-Gastvorlesung: Sovereignty. From Westphalia to Ukraine

Universität Hamburg (2022)

  • MA-Blockseminar: Research Methods in Peace and Security Studies

Georgetown University (2020)

  • MA-Gastvorlesung: The Politics of European Security after Brexit

Dublin City University (2016-2019)

  • MA-Blockseminar: Research Methods in Security and Intelligence Studies

  • Lehrassistenz: International Relations and Security

  • BA-Kurs: Introduction to Research Methods and Skills

Maynooth University (2019)

  • MA-Blockseminar: Theories of International Relations

Université Grenoble Alpes (2019)

  • MA-Blockseminar: Peace, Security and Defence Cooperation in Europe after Brexit

Awards

2025
International Studies Association (ISA) Law Section Honorary Mention für das Beste Paper, „Expressivism and Punishment in International Relations and Criminal Justice” (Chicago, USA)

2023
Luke Foster-Preis für den besten JCER-Zeitschriftenartikel für den Artikel „Evolutionary Stable Global Orders: Co-Relational Power and Multilateral Security Organisations“

2019
Preis der British International Studies Association (BISA) für herausragende Leistungen in der Lehre internationaler Studien durch einen Postgraduierten (London, UK)

Preis für den besten rumänischen Doktoranden in Europa (zweiter Platz), verliehen von der Liga der rumänischen Studenten im Ausland (Bukarest, Rumänien)

2013
VEUK-Preis der Universität Konstanz für den MA-Abschluss (Konstanz, Deutschland)
 

Third-party funding

Grants

  • Carlsberg Foundation Conference Grant, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (2022) (26.000 DKK)
  • Jean Monnet Grant for Module ‘EU Foreign and Security Policy: Theory and Practice’ at Dublin City University, Ireland (collaborative) (2019) (30.000 EUR)
  • L’Association pour les Études sur la Guerre et la Stratégie (AEGES) Funding for Research Workshop at University Grenoble Alpes, France (2019) (1.500 EUR)
  • Political Sciences Association of Ireland (PSAI) Conference Grant for a book launch, Dublin City University, Ireland (2019) (400 EUR)

Fellowships

  • Visiting Professorship, Scandinavian Visiting Program, Kiel University (Kiel, Germany)
  • DAAD-Postdoctoral Fellowship, Johns Hopkins University (Washington, D.C., United States)
  • YERUN Visiting Fellowship, University of Southern Denmark (Odense, Denmark)
  • Government of Ireland Doctoral Fellowship (Dublin, Ireland)
  • Pre-Doctoral Fellowship awarded by ZEIT-Stiftung (Hamburg, Germany)
  • DAAD-Erasmus Placements Fellowship at the United Nations (Vienna, Austria)
  • DAAD-STIBET Scholarship for International Students (Konstanz, Germany)
  • Cluster of Excellence Research Support for field research for MA thesis, several sample regions, India and Pakistan
  • Baden-Württemberg-Scholarship for an international semester at Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi, India)
  • Excellence Scholarship, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi (Iasi, Romania)
Public media contributions

Public scholarship

2024
Die Geschichte der NATO und ihre Mitglieder. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. https://www.bpb.de/themen/internationale-organisationen/nato/547797/die-geschichte-der-nato-und-ihrer-mitglieder/

2022
European Perspectives on The Global Return of Nuclear Weapons. Copenhagen: Djøf Forlag. cms.polsci.ku.dk/publikationer/2023/CMS_report_-_European_Perspectives_on_the_Global_Return_of_Nuclear_Weapons.pdf (mit Alexander Høgsberg Tetzlaff)

Podcasts

2024
CMS Report Talk: European Perspectives on the Global Return of Nuclear Weapons (mit Tetzlaff, A. H.)

2023
NIAS Book Podcast: Civil-Military Relations and Global Security Governance 

Newspaper articles  

2023
Danmarks våbenindkøb kan påvirke atombalancen i Østersøen. Berlingske, Copenhagen. (mit Alexander Tetzlaff und Kristian Søby Kristensen)

TV live broadcast
C-Span TV 2019. Buchvorstellung „What Does Brexit Mean for Transatlantic Relations” an der Johns Hopkins University, Washington D.C.: https://www.c-span.org/video/?465067-1/irish-ambassador-us-daniel-mulhall-discusses-brexit