After a covid break of two years, CESS is hosting EUCAM fellows at their office in Groningen again. We are grateful for being able to discuss Central Asian and European developments in person at the kitchen table and work with fellows in research and training. In their first few weeks trainings were organised at CESS with Rashid Gabdulhakov, Merijn Hartog and Erik Sportel. Research fellows Viktoriya Nem, Nadezhda Tatkalo and Gulzada Rysbekova also met online with Andreas Marazis of and Chiara Pierobon to discuss EU policies and civil society advocacy. Next up: visits to The Hague and Brussels.
Before joining the Centre for European Security Studies in 2016, Boonstra worked as senior researcher, and later as head of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia programme at FRIDE, a think tank with offices in Madrid and Brussels. He completed MAs in Contemporary History and International Relations at the University of Groningen. His work focuses on Eurasian and transatlantic security issues (in particular EU, NATO and OSCE policies) as well as on development policies and democratisation in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Boonstra is member of several internal research networks and regularly comments on international issues in the media.