Bogdan Țopan

Bogdan is currently pursuing a double diploma PhD with University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and the University of Bucharest. He holds an MA in International Security and a BA in Political Science, both from Sciences Po Paris. As part of his double PhD diploma, Bogdan spent three semesters as a French-language teaching assistant at the University of Bucharest for a BA course in International Relations, Diplomacy, and International Affairs. Apart from his academic pursuits,  he is a proud Romanian career diplomat, primarily dealing with strategic affairs and security policies within NATO and the European Union.

Bogdan's research analyses how the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and subsequently the European Union, have developed policy response mechanisms to hybrid conflicts, transforming this concept into a policy tool that is not fully regulated, while creating a "threshold of conflictuality” that might facilitate the triggering of the collective defense mechanisms available at the level of the two organizations. This research attempts to fill a series of knowledge gaps concerning the policy responses against hybrid attacks through an intersectional study of the policy responses at the level of NATO and the European Union. The preliminary results of this study demonstrated that the using of the term led to an evolution of the strategic thinking at the level of the two organization, while equally producing structural transformation and being conducive to the development of subsequent decision-making processes.