Board of
Advisors

Sebastian Schäffer is Director of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe (IDM), a think tank based in Vienna, and Secretary General of the Danube Rectors’ Conference, a network of almost 70 universities. He is also an Associate Fellow at GLOBSEC’s Centre for Global Europe in Bratislava and founder of SSC Europe, a network for seminars, simulations, and consulting. Schäffer serves on the Advisory Committee of the International Elias Canetti Society in Ruse. Previously, he held academic posts at the universities of Göttingen, Greifswald, and Munich, and worked at the Center for Applied Policy Research (CAP). He holds a Master’s degree in East European Studies from the University of Regensburg and an M.A. in Political Science, European Law, and Slavonic Studies from LMU Munich. His areas of expertise include European integration, regional cooperation, as well as Russian influence in Central and Eastern Europe. He has written over 100 articles and policy papers, including a proposal for a Greater European Council. Schäffer co-authored a book with Erhard Busek on EU enlargement and edited a book on Ukraine in Central and Eastern Europe. His latest monograph Vor 100 Jahren in der Zukunft (2024) reflects on his visit to Kyiv in 2023.