ICSID new team members

Two post-doc fellows Amanda Zadorian and Fabian Burkhardt will join the ICSID team for one year in September 2018.

Amanda Zadorian is currently a Ph.D candidate at The New School for Social Research (USA).  She examines changing practices of political legitimation and forms of accountability in the contemporary global economy. Her research is inspired by the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, as the dominant assumptions of neoliberalism continue to shape policymaking despite growing political concerns about their effects on social outcomes and the quality of democratic institutions. Amanda's dissertation “Competing for Legitimacy: Oil Industry Governance and the Shareholder State in Russia and Brazil” focuses on the energy sector, where there is a substantial overlap between political economy of development and politics. The defense is scheduled for May.

During her post-doc fellowship Amanda intends to examine the efforts of BRICS countries, led by Russia, to create a financial architecture based on their own currencies. Residence in Moscow and access to the ICSID databases on economic and social outcomes will both provide resources to develop the parameters of her new project.

Fabian Burkhardt is also about to defend his thesis "Presidential Power and Institutional Change: a study on the Presidency of the Russian Federation". He has an extensive experience of research work in German scientific and educational institutions, i.e. German Institute for International and Security Affairs, LMU Munich, Bremen University. Fabian's research interests include comparative politics, comparative presidentialism, constitutional politics, political institutions under authoritarianism, authoritarian durability, Post-Soviet and Russian politics. He has written a number of articles and book chapters. His paper "The Institutionalization of Relative Advantage: Formal Institutions, Substitutional Presidential Powers, and the Rise of Authoritarian Politics in Russia, 1994-2012" was published in “Post-Soviet Affairs” in 2017.

While at ICSID, Fabian will continue his research, where he tries to explain regional variations in implementation of the President's instructions (May Decrees) by Russian officials.