Zenonas Tziarras left PRIO in 2022. The information on this page is kept for historical reasons.
News
Thursday, 7 Apr 2022
This new FAIR case brief by Zenonas Tziarras focuses on how the Astana process became central to the peace efforts regarding the Syria conflict after 2017, but it has been heavily influenced by the interests and positions of its three sponsors or guarantor powers: Russia, Turkey, and Iran.
Zenonas Tziarras holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Warwick, UK where he taught World Politics and specialized in Turkish foreign policy and the Middle East. He has collaborated with a number of institutions in Cyprus and abroad as an analyst and taught Greek-Turkish Relations, Strategy & War, and Global Security in the Department of Social & Political Sciences at the University of Cyprus. He holds a BA in Mediterranean Studies & International Relations from the University of the Aegean, Greece, and an MA in International Relations & Strategic Studies from the University of Birmingham, UK.
Between 2015 and 2017 he worked as an Associate Lecturer in Security & Diplomacy Studies at the University of Central Lancashire, Cyprus campus, teaching modules on Geopolitics and International Security for the MA in Security & Diplomacy Studies and the LLM. Between 2017 and 2018 he completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Department of Social & Political Sciences at the University of Cyprus on Neoclassical Realist Foreign Policy Analysis and Turkey.
His expertise and research interests lie in Turkish politics and foreign policy, the international politics of the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean, International Relations theory, security & strategic studies, intrastate conflict, and the polarity of the international system (international order). He is a frequent media commentator, authors popular articles, and participates in the editorial board of the New Middle Eastern Studies journal.
Zenonas co-edited a volume on the foreign policy of the Republic of Cyprus [in Greek] and co-authored a book on Turkish foreign policy in the Eastern Mediterranean [in Greek]. Among other projects, he is currently working on three more edited volumes on Cypriot foreign policy, Turkish foreign policy, and the Eastern Mediterranean respectively as well as on a monograph on Neoclassical Realism and Turkish foreign policy.
At the PCC he is focusing his research on the geopolitics of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Book Chapter in The Foreign Policy of the Republic of Cyprus: Local, Regional and International Dimensions
Book Chapter in The Foreign Policy of the Republic of Cyprus: Local, Regional and International Dimensions
FAIR Case Brief
Monograph
Monograph
PRIO Cyprus Centre Policy Brief
Edited Volume
Journal Article in Oxford Energy Forum
Journal Article in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies
Popular Article in Foreign Policy
This new FAIR case brief by Zenonas Tziarras focuses on how the Astana process became central to the peace efforts regarding the Syria conflict after 2017, but it has been heavily influenced by the interests and positions of its three sponsors or guarantor powers: Russia, Turkey, and Iran.
This book examines the foreign policy of the Republic of Cyprus, particularly since 2004—the year of its accession to the European Union and of the failed Annan Plan V of the United Nations which aimed to solve the decades-old Cyprus Problem. Scholarly work about the politics and foreign policy of the Republic of Cyprus (RoC) has been almost entirely analyzed through the prism of the Cyprus Problem. This is not without justification since the Cyprus Problem is indeed central to the social, political, and economic life of Cyprus. However, Cyprus is located in a highly neuralgic area of historical and geopolitical importance that is, more often than not, characterized by rapid developments, instability, and insecurity. Therefore, the RoC's politics and foreign policy go well beyond the confines of the Cyprus Problem, or so they should. Although the subject of the book is not international by definition, the book touches upon many regional and international dimensions that render it relevant for anyone who wants to better understand not just Cyprus but also the broader region and its importance for regional and international actors.
Buy the book here
The Red Lines and Grey Zones project has been officially launched with a kick-off meeting on the 1st of March. Please find an introduction to the project presented by Kristoffer Lidén above.
In the context of rapid developments in Turkey and its broader geopolitical environment over the past decade, this book examines and conceptualises Turkey’s changing foreign policy towards a more assertive and revisionist paradigm.
Recent discovery of hydrocarbon has exacerbated existing geopolitical tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean. In an episode of PRIO's Peace in a Pod, PRIO Cyprus Centre Researcher Zenonas Tziarras gives an overview of the Eastern Mediterranean, laying out its key players and its recent history, and sheds light on why hydrocarbons are consequential for a region that includes several Middle Eastern countries.
On 9-10 September 2021, around 20 researchers met for a hybrid online-offline workshop to share their research on specific cases of ethical issues in peace negotiations and mediation. The workshop was part of the PRIO project 'On Fair Terms: The Ethics of Peace Negotiations and Mediation' (FAIR) and included both PRIO researchers and researchers from across the world.
The project "Red Lines and Grey Zones: Exploring the Ethics of Humanitarian Negotiation" has received funding from the Research Council of Norway. Starting from consultations with humanitarian practitioners, the project will map problems related to the ethics of negotiation and cross examine these challenges through cases from Syria, Bangladesh, Colombia, Nepal, the Mediterranean and the UN Security Council.
In this episode of The Conversation podcast, Dr. Zenonas Tziarras talks about Turkish foreign policy in the Eastern Mediterranean.
What objectives does Turkey have?
How and why is Turkish foreign policy revisionist?
What about the conflict and the presence of non-state actors in the region? And what do Turkish actions mean for other regional players?
In this talk for Deep Dive Politics Zenonas covers the international systemic drivers and individual state interests that led to the emergence of the new security architecture in the Eastern Mediterranean. He specifically analyzes the impact of global power shifts on the regional level, Turkish foreign policy, and the factors that led to a closer cooperation among Eastern Mediterranean states. Lastly, the talk covers the prospects and challenges of regional integration.