The Founders
Ioannis-Sotirios Ioannou
Ioannis-Sotirios Ioannou was born and raised in Athens. He originates from Limassol and is currently based in Nicosia. He worked as the editor-in chief and columnist at Politis Newspaper (International News Department). Currently he is a columnist and provides analysis for Kathimerini newspaper. Ioannis is a political scientist with a BA and Masters in International and European Studies (University of Piraeus) and a BA in Journalism (Centre for General and Sports Journalism, KAR, Athens).
He has worked as a journalist for Greek, Cypriot and international publications and radio channels. He has published articles and analyses in scientific journals, and has served as an expert and associate for MPs in the Hellenic Parliament. His area of expertise covers international and regional conflicts, the Middle East, terrorism and security, as well as specific issues of diplomatic and military history and cultural affairs.*
Twitter: @JohnPikpas
Zenonas Tziarras
Zenonas Tziarras holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Warwick, UK where he taught World Politics. His doctoral thesis is titled, “Turkish Foreign Policy towards the Middle East under the AKP: a Neoclassical Realist Account.” He has been a non-resident Foreign Policy & Middle East Expert for the think tank Strategy International, an Analyst on Security & Turkey for The Europe Levant Observatory (TELO) at the Diplomatic Academy, University of Nicosia, among other institutions, and taught Greek-Turkish Relations, Strategy & War, and Global Security in the Department of Social & Political Sciences at the University of Cyprus. He has also worked as an independent consultant on geopolitical risk analysis.
Between 2015 and 2017 he worked as an Associate Lecturer in Security & Diplomacy Studies at the University of Central Lancashire, Cyprus campus, teaching modules on Geopolitics and International Security for the MA in Security & Diplomacy Studies and the LLM. Between 2017 and 2018 he completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Department of Social & Political Sciences at the University of Cyprus on “Transitional Political Systems in Foreign Policy Analysis: Neoclassical Realism and the case of Turkey”.
His expertise and research interests lie in Turkish politics and foreign policy, the international politics of the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean, International Relations theory, security & strategic studies. He co-authored Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean [In Greek], authored International Politics in the Eastern Mediterranean [In Greek], edited or co-edited a number of published or under publication books and reports on Cyprus, Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean. Zenonas is currently a Researcher with PRIO Cyprus Centre focusing on Eastern Mediterranean geopolitics and is working on a new monograph on Turkish foreign policy.*
Twitter: @ZenonasTziarras. Full list of publications at Academia.edu.
Associate Analysts
Michalis Foulias
Michalis Foulias has a BA in Politics and Media from the University of Wolverhampton and an MA in International Security and Terrorism from the University of Nottingham. He has worked as a Projects Officer at SAT-7 Media services in Nicosia focusing on the regional situation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and he has published articles in local newspapers and his main research interests include the Middle East and the Balkans, terrorism, and security as well as regional conflicts. He currently works as a political consultant and analyst.*
Petros Petrikkos
Petros Petrikkos is a PhD student in International Relations, with a focus on Security Studies. He holds a MSc in Conflict Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA in International Relations from Queen Mary, University of London. He has previously worked as an Executive Assistant and Middle East and North Africa Research Associate at the Centre for Sustainable Peace and Democratic Development (SeeD). His postgraduate thesis on critical approaches to state hegemony led him to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in Beirut, Lebanon. His main research interests lie in foreign policy and the International Relations of the Middle East, the EU and small states, cybersecurity and modern warfare, civil society, corruption, international security, as well as regional and intrastate conflict in North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Levant.*
*The views expressed by the authors of Geopolitical Cyprus do not necessarily reflect those of their employers, organizations or other groups or individuals.