Bob Deen joined the Clingendael Institute as Senior Research Fellow and team leader on Security and Defence since March 2020. He is the Coordinator of the Russia and Eastern Europe Centre. His research focuses on international security issues, geopolitics, multilateral co-operation and inter-ethnic conflict, with a particular emphasis on Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. Current research subjects include European strategic autonomy and Russian foreign and security policy.
He has over 15 years of experience in international governmental and non-governmental organizations, mainly for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as Head of Section and Senior Adviser to the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities. He also worked in Georgia as a Political Adviser for the EU and in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan for a non-governmental aid organization. In 2018 he was appointed by the Council of Europe as member of the Advisory Committee of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
He holds a Masters degree in Nationalism and Ethnicity (distinction) from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Masters degree in International Relations/International Organizations (cum laude) from the University of Groningen. He has lectured at various Dutch universities, including at Leiden University College for the course ‘Foreign Policy and Diplomacy’.