René Cuperus

Drs. René Cuperus is currently Senior Research Fellow ’EU & Global Affairs’ at Clingendael, the Netherlands Institute for International Relations. He publishes about geopolitics, EU enlargement and reform, the rise of populism and the erosion of the political center. He is also Visiting Scholar at the Germany Institute (DIA) of the University of Amsterdam. 

Rene Cuperus worked as a strategic advisor at the Ministry of Interior, in the domain of democracy and governance. There, together with electoral geographer Josse de Voogd, he wrote the illustrious Atlas van Afgehaakt Nederland (Disengaged, Marginalised, Peripheral, Deplorable Netherlands), an analysis of the new gaps and fault lines in Western society. On this subject, he gives introductions inside and outside the government on ‘governance in times of polarisation and transition’ and on social unrest.

René Cuperus is currently member of ‘European Integration Committee’ of the Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV). This is an independent body which advises the Dutch government and parliament on foreign policy. He is also on the board of the Dutch ’Atlantic Commission’ and guide/board member of ‘Nationaal Monument Kamp Amersfoort’, a former Nazi-concentration camp in the Netherlands. 

Before, Cuperus was working as ’Scholar in Residence’ at the Strategy Unit of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, working on European integration, Globalisation and the Populist Backlash and China-EU-USA relations. He also was Director for International Relations at the Wiardi Beckman Foundation, thinktank of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA).

Cuperus wrote a political column for Dutch daily newspaper De Volkskrant and contributed a blog to Social Europe Journal, an E-journal linked to the London School of Economics (LSE). He has published on Geopolitics, European politics and populism in various international publications.

He holds degrees in political and cultural history and cultural anthropology from the Universities of Groningen and Lisbon. René Cuperus taught at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Groningen. He furthermore gave (guest) lectures at various universities in Europe and USA.