About

The main aim of CHIOS is to foster research, cooperation, dissemination and teaching – geared towards academia and public policy development both on the historical roots and current predicaments of Northern Europe’s geopolitical position in a European, Atlantic and global perspective.

As such, CHIOS has three focus areas:

  • Reimagining Northern Europe’s role and position within shifting regional and international orders across the 19th, 20th and 21st century
  • Uncovering strategic conceptualizations of Northern European geopolitics, security and multilateral cooperation – historically and contemporarily.
  • Tracing and analyzing policies, strategies and infrastructures of ordering Northern Europe – within a European, Atlantic and global framework.

CHIOS Directors

Michael Jonas

Prof Michael Jonas, PhD 2009 (Univ. Helsinki), habilitation 2016 (Helmut-Schmidt-Univ.), is a modern historian interested in the history of international politics, diplomacy, international law, war, and conflict. Educated in Berlin and Helsinki, he has worked on the military, political, and diplomatic history of both world wars, small states in international politics, and forms of international organization and empire. Read more

Marine Pierre

Marine Pierre (PhD 2022), is a modern historian whose current research bridges social history, diplomatic history, and the history of international organizations, with a particular focus on expertise, transnational careers, and bureaucratic cultures. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen, where she has been based since July 2023. Read more

Louis Clerc

Louis Clerc, PhD (University of Strasbourg, 2007), is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Turku. His research focuses on the history of international relations, with particular emphasis on diplomacy, public diplomacy, and cultural diplomacy in the Nordic countries. He has published extensively on Franco-Nordic relations and the evolution of diplomatic practices, and is a founding member of the Network for New Diplomatic History. Read more

Haakon A. Ikonomou

Haakon A. Ikonomou is a tenure track assistant professor at the Saxo-Institute at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH). A historian of international organizations, internationalism, global governance, international bureaucracy, and diplomacy, he takes inspiration from digital, global, prosopographical, biographical, institutional, social, and oral history approaches. Read more

Steering Group

Prof. Arne Westad

Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs, Yale University

Prof. Marina Henke

Director, Centre for International Security, Hertie School, Berlin

Prof. John Ikenberry

Milbank Prof. of Politics and Int. Affairs, Princeton University

Prof. Sunniva Engh

Professor of Modern History, University of Oslo

Prof. Eckart Conze

History Department, University of Marburg

Prof. Francis Gavin

Director, Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, SAIS

Prof. Morten Rasmussen

CEMES & META-UN Chair, Saxo Inst., University of Copenhagen

Prof. Jürgen Osterhammel

fm. Director, Centre for Global History, University of Konstanz

Prof. Jeremi Suri

Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs, UT Austin

Prof. Sandrine Kott

Professor of European History, University of Geneva

Prof. Brendan Simms

Director, Centre for Geopolitics, University of Cambridge

Prof. Alanna O'Malley

Institute for History, Leiden University

Prof. Mogens Pelt

Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen

Prof. Klaus Beckmann

President, Helmut-Schmidt-University

Prof. Ada Nissen

Pro-Dean Faculty of Humanities, Associate Professor, University of Oslo.

Partnerships

CHIOS is based at Helmut-Schmidt-University Hamburg and a joint flagship initiative with the University of Copenhagen cooperating with other international partners to foster historically informed strategies and understandings of international order.

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