Nikolaos Tzifakis (PhD, Lancaster University) holds a Jean Monnet Chair in EU Foreign Policy and the Western Balkans and is a Professor of International Relations at the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the University of the Peloponnese. He is also the Coordinator of the “Empowering the Geopolitical EU in the Eastern Neighbourhood and the Western Balkans (GEO-POWER-EU)” Horizon Europe Project. He has been a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (in Tirana) and at the European Regional Master (ERMA) in “Democracy and Human Rights in South-East Europe” (University of Bologna/University of Sarajevo). In addition, he is a Research Associate with the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies. His research focuses on EU external policies and geopolitical competition in the Western Balkans.

In 2008, he received (together with Asteris Huliaras) the Marcel Cadieux Distinguished Writing Award by the Canadian International Council. He co-edited (with Florian Bieber) The Western Balkans in the World: Linkages and Relations with Non-Western Countries (Routledge, 2020).