Dr. Regina Heller

Regina Heller studied Political Science and Eastern Slavonic Studies at the University of Mainz, Middlebury College, Vermont/USA and at the University of Hamburg. After her exams in Hamburg, she worked at the Conflict Prevention Network (CPN) at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Ebenhausen and Berlin. She was also part of the "International Risk Policy" research project at the Transatlantic Foreign and Security Policy Unit of the FU Berlin and at the Aspen Institute Berlin. In 2006, Regina Heller obtained her doctorate in Hamburg on human rights and norm socialization in Russia. Throughout the academic year 2014/15, Regina Heller held a substitute professorship for International Relations at the Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg/University of the German Armed Forces.

Regina Heller is senior researcher at the IFSH. She conducts research on Russia, Eastern Europe/Eurasia and the European Union's policy towards the Eastern Neighborhood. She deals with Russian domestic and foreign policy, EU-Russia relations and protracted conflicts in the Eastern neighborhood.  Her research has a theoretical focus on the influence of norms and identity on foreign policy action and international structures in Europe and Eurasia. The DFG project Claiming respect - the socio-emotional dimension of Russia's relations with the West (2013-2018) examined the influence of identity and emotions on Russian foreign policy vis-à-vis the West. The project found that the current deterioration in relations can be attributed in large part to conflicts over social status, which have been smouldering since the mid-1990s and which have their origin in a shift of the social attributes for international status towards liberal principles.

Publications