Meet the full International Relations teaching staff
Dr Birgit Poopuu is Associate Professor of International Relations and the Head of the IR Master’s programme at Tallinn University. Birgit’s recent research has been curious about critical-relational perspectives on security, the solidarity between peripheral spaces, e.g., the Global East and South. Her main area of expertise is in critical peace and conflict studies, and her key research interests include knowing IR from revolutionary perspectives, the different types of violence and their role in holding us hostage to a violent world, the purchase of nonviolence in creating change, the politics of knowledge production.
Birgit is an editor at the journals: Journal of International Relations and Development (JIRD) and Ariadne Lõng. She is the Principal Investigator of the Horizon Twinning project “A critical relational perspective on peace & security in CEE”, and the co-director of the Central and Eastern European Security Hub (CEEShub).
Birgit can be found on LinkedIn.
Have a look at Birgit’s contribution on the war in Ukraine (co-authored with Eret Talviste):“Wars do not stand in isolation from each other, they are linked by violent structures”
Read also Birgit’s recent major publication Handbook of Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics (Oxford University Press, 2025) exploring the politics of knowledge production in world politics (co-edited with Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Katarzyna Kaczmarska, Xymena Kurowska and Andrea Warnecke).
Dr Benjamin Klasche is Associate Professor of International Relations, the Head of the International Relations Department, and Co-Director of the Central and Eastern European Security Hub (CEEShub). Ben’s research focuses on critical-relational theorizing, human security and peace and climate governance and how all these things are deeply intertwined. I am also keenly interested in colonial history, post-colonial and post-socialist theories, and the politics of knowledge production, which lead me to questions about global solidarity between the Global South and the Global East.
You can follow Ben on LinkedIn.
Read Ben’s and Birgit’s contribution to relational theory in International Studies Quarterly where they explore the question “What Relations Matter”?
Also check out Ben’s essay on Estonia’s part in the economy of genocide of the Palestinians of Gaza in one of Estonia’s leading cultural magazine SIRP. The English version can be found here.
Dr Toni Čerkez is an early-career scholar with a track-record of high quality research in critical and relational theories of IR. He obtained his PhD in International Politics from Aberystwyth University (highest grade) and a master’s degree in International Relations from Central European University (with distinction). Toni’s research focuses on critical relational thought in IR, socio-technical imaginaries, and algorithmic governance, as well as de-colonial and cosmological research. However, he does not limit himself to just those areas and is also exploring political ecology, post-humanist and anthropological theory, and the Anthropocene. Currently, Toni is writing a paper on Hannah Arendt and her concept of tradition. The paper will examine her conceptualization of Western political philosophy and how it is reflected today in the workings of Big Tech.
Please find Toni’s ETIS and Linkedin profiles.
Explore Toni’s work on data (co-authored with Wasiq Silan): Čerkez, T. and Silan, W. (forthcoming) “Prolegomena for Technodiversity: On Data and Indigeneity.” Third World Quarterly.
Read Toni’s take on drone violence: Čerkez, T. (2024) ‘Droned Lives, from Gaza to the World’, E-International Relations, 19 October.
Dr Marianna Lovato is a Lecturer in International Relations at Tallinn University. Her research interests revolve around European foreign and security policy, informality in global governance, and relational approaches to international cooperation. Her monograph, Making EU Foreign Policy Go Around: The Significance of Informality for the Survival of Multilateralism, is forthcoming with Bristol University Press.
Marianna is Associate Editor at European Security.
Read Marianna's piece on the relational effects of Brexit on European foreign policy cooperation.
Check out how Marianna thinks political (in)stability shapes Italy's influence in the European Union.
Marianna can be found on LinkedIn.
Dr Timothy Raymond Anderson is a Visiting Research Fellow in International Relations and a critical anthropologist of state power and belonging. His research investigates the procedural and ethical contradictions of state practice, asking how grand geopolitical narratives translate into the lived experience of borders and bureaucracy. He is the originator of the theory of ‘civilizational citizenship’, an award winning concept that explains how liberal states manage belonging in an age of geopolitical anxiety. Timothy’s work bridges critical theory with practical policy engagement, drawing on years of ethnographic fieldwork and prior experience in policy advising and global health data analysis. He is a core member of the Horizon Europe-funded Central and Eastern European Security Hub (CEEShub).
More details can be found on Timothy’s LinkedIn and ETIS profiles.
Dr Walter Rech is Research Professor of Legal Philosophy and Legal Theory at Tallinn University. Walter is an interdisciplinary scholar conducting research at the intersection of law, philosophy, politics and history. His interdisciplinary approach is grounded on the idea that bringing together diverse intellectual perspectives helps achieve a better understanding of a world characterised by deep and complex entanglements. Walter has broad thematic interests and has published e.g. on issues of war and security; current challenges to the rule of law; the role of the philosophy of history in legal and political discourse; and the nature of certain legal, political and ethical concepts, such as ‘enemy’, ‘evil’ and ‘subject’.
Walter is on LinkedIn.
Read his article on Indirect Aggression and the North Atlantic Treaty
Walter's piece on targeted killing is a must, see here: Is it Legal? Is it Useful? Some Questions on Targeted Killing
Dr Halliki Kreinin is an early-career researcher and visiting lecturer in International Relations at Tallinn University. Halliki received an MA in International Relations (with Honours, 2014) from the University of St Andrews, as well as an MSc Socio-Ecological Economics and Policy (with Distinction, 2018) and a PhD in Social and Economic Sciences (with Distinction, 2022) from the Vienna University of Economics and Business. She has worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Münster, Chair for International Relations and Sustainable Development (2022-2023), Senior Researcher at RIFS Helmholtz Centre Potsdam (2024-2025) as a coordinator for the EU 1.5 Lifestyles project, and as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Tallinn University (2026-ongoing) as part of the SustainERA project.
Her research interests span degrowth and social-ecological transformation, with a focus on transforming work, sustainable welfare states and demand reduction. Her long-time secret research passion is temporality, time-use and breaking free from the domination of abstract labour time.
Halliki is an elected board member of the European Society for Ecological Economics (2024-2027).
She was also a Lead Author on Chapter 6: Climate governance: Political, legal, economic and societal aspects of the 2025 Austrian Panel on Climate Change (APCC) Assessment report on climate change in Austria (AAR2).
You can find a list of her publications on ETIS, ORCID, and Google Scholar.
She is also on LinkedIn (and occasionally tries to spread information to a younger audience on Instagram and Tiktok).
Kevin Molloy is a Junior Research Fellow at Tallinn University, where he conducts his PhD research within the Central and Eastern European Security Hub (CEEShub) as part of the European Horizon Twinning Project “A Critical Relational Perspective on Peace & Security in CEE.” He also teaches English at the School of Humanities. With a background in anthropology and filmmaking and current studies in international relations, Kevin’s interdisciplinary work combines visual, spatial, and ethnographic approaches to explore how borders and spaces are lived in everyday life. His films have been screened at over twenty international festivals and conferences, and his research focuses on everyday bordering through a critical-relational lens.
His recent 360-degree audiovisual installation, “Moments in an Ordinary Night,” exhibited at the Estonian National Museum as part of “Kellele kuulub öö?”, explored how people have experienced and imagined the night in Estonian cities.
Explore Kevin’s ethnographic narrative photo essay, “Visual Field Testing,” which highlights how spatial relations shape social experience through everyday movements and encounters.
Victor Jimenez is a junior research fellow in International Relations at Tallinn University. His research focuses on issues of corruption and state capture in Serbia and their relationship with the process of European integration in the Western Balkan region. His theoretical contributions center on radical relationism and green extractivism, investigating the intersection of political, economic, environmental, and institutional relations in the region as exemplary of the double exclusion faced by semiperipheral societies in the Global East. He is a Tallinn University alumnus, having graduated from the Bachelor’s program "Liberal Arts in Social Sciences" and the Master’s program "International Relations"with cum laude honors.
Victor can be found on ORCID and on ResearchGate.
Luise G. Domina is a junior research fellow in the Department of International Relations, working at the intersection of International Relations, Conflict Studies, and Critical Criminology. Their research examines the international relations of non-state armed actors through a critical-relational lens, focusing on the interconnectedness of paramilitaries, insurgent formations, and violent criminal organisations with one another and with states, militaries, local societies, diasporas, and their natural surroundings.
Luise’s theoretical interests centre on relational conceptualisations of ideology, violent behaviour, and clandestine resource flows. She holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Leipzig and an MA in International Organisations and Crisis Management from the University of Jena, where their research on paramilitary organisation in Northern Ireland sparked this current research agenda. She has also worked in advocacy on surveillance and digital rights and contributed to refugee, youth, and press freedom initiatives.