Cornelius Friesendorf is Head of the Centre for OSCE Research (CORE). Before joining the IFSH in 2018, he was a Senior Advisor for an EU police reform support project in Myanmar and worked as a researcher for institutions including Goethe-University Frankfurt, the Frankfurt Peace Research Institute, the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance, and ETH Zurich. He received his habilitation from Goethe-University Frankfurt for a study of military interventions, and his doctorate from the University of Zurich, where his thesis examined US strategies against drug trafficking. Prior to this, he studied political science at the Free University Berlin, the London School of Economics, and in Bristol and Göttingen. He was also a journalist at the BBC World Service in London. He speaks English, German, French, and Russian.

In his academic research and policy work, Cornelius Friesendorf analyses the European security order, especially the role of the OSCE and Western-Russian relations. Further themes include international support for security sector reform (in particular in the post-Soviet space), multinational police missions, counter-insurgency and transnational security risks, with a focus on human trafficking and drug trafficking. He is co-editor of OSCE Insights, a series of policy briefs published in English and Russian, and Co-Coordinator of the OSCE Network of Think Tanks and Academic Institutions, which promotes transnational research on OSCE-relevant topics.

Publications