Stefan Wolff is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

. He is a specialist in international security, particularly in the management, settlement and prevention of ethnic conflicts. He is currently

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

of International Security at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Born in 1969, He studied as an undergraduate at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

and holds a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

from

Magdalene College Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mar ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

, and a PhD from the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

, where he studied under the supervision of

Brendan O'Leary Brendan O'Leary (born 19 March 1958) is an Irish political scientist, who is Lauder Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He was formerly a professor at the London School of Economics. In 2009–10 he was the seco ...

. His doctoral thesis, dated 2000, was title
Managing disputed territories, external minorities and the stability of conflict settlements: A comparative analysis of six cases

Research interests

Wolff specializes in the prevention, management and settlement of

ethnic An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

and religious conflicts and in post-conflict reconstruction in deeply divided and war-torn societies. He has expertise in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

, and has also worked on a range of other regions, including Central and

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, and Central and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

Career

Wolff is a consultant for national and international governmental and non-governmental organizations and the private sector. He is part of a small team of experts studying and developing complex institutional design solutions for self-determination conflicts, funded, among others, by the

Carnegie Endowment The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington D.C. with operations in Europe, South and East Asia, and the Middle East as well as the United States. Founded i ...

. He is also coordinating a research group examining the influence of external factors on the development and stability of ethnic autonomy regimes. Other research and consulting projects in this area have been funded by the

UK Foreign Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' ministries of foreign affairs, it was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreig ...

, the

Westminster Foundation for Democracy The Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) is a United Kingdom non-departmental public body set up to support democratic institutions overseas. It was established on 26 February 1992 and registered as a company limited by guarantee in the U ...

and the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...

. He is convener of the

Political Studies Association The Political Studies Association (PSA) is a learned society in the United Kingdom which exists to develop and promote the study of politics. It is the leading association in its field in the United Kingdom, with an international membership includi ...

's Specialist Group on Ethnopolitics and the

European Consortium for Political Research The European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) is a scholarly association that supports and encourages the training, research and cross-national cooperation of many thousands of academics and graduate students specialising in political sci ...

's Standing Group on Security Issues. Wolff is a member of the Executive Committee of the Ethnicity, Nationalism and Migration Section of the

International Studies Association The International Studies Association (ISA) is a US-based professional association for scholars and practitioners in the field of international studies. Founded in 1959, ISA has been headquartered at the University of Connecticut in Storrs sin ...

and a member of the Executive Board of the

Association for the Study of Nationalities The Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) is an academic association dedicated to the promotion of knowledge and understanding of ethnicity, nationalism, and ethnic conflict broadly, with a particular geographic focus on Central, Easte ...

. Previously

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

at the

University of Bath (Virgil, Georgics II) , mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind , established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...

, and Chair in Political Science at the

University of Nottingham , mottoeng = A city is built on wisdom , established = 1798 – teacher training college1881 – University College Nottingham1948 – university status , type = Public , chancellor ...

, he is now based in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham. Since the academic year 2003/4 he has also held concurrent appointments as Professorial Lecturer in

International Relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...

at the

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

School of Advanced International Studies, Bologna Center, and as Resource Fellow of the

Open Society Institute Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is a grantmaking network founded and chaired by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with a st ...

's Academic Fellowship Program. Since 2005, he has also been a Teaching Fellow at the

Joint Services Command and Staff College Joint Services Command and Staff College (JSCSC) is a British military academic establishment providing training and education to experienced officers of the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force, Ministry of Defence Civil Service, and serving offic ...

of the

British Ministry of Defence The Ministry of Defence (MOD or MoD) is the department responsible for implementing the defence policy set by His Majesty's Government, and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces. The MOD states that its principal objectives are to ...

. In 2003, he was appointed Senior Non-resident Research Associate at the

European Centre for Minority Issues The European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) is a research institute based in Flensburg, Germany, that conducts research into minority-majority relations in Europe. ECMI is a non-partisan and interdisciplinary institution. It is a non-profit, in ...

in Flensburg, Germany.

Selected works

Monographs

* ''Disputed Territories: The Transnational Dynamics of Ethnic Conflict Settlement'' (New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 2003, paperback 2004) * ''The German Question. An Analysis with Key Documents'' (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003) * ''Germany's Foreign Policy Towards Poland and the Czech Republic: Ostpolitik Revisited'' (co-authored with Karl Cordell) (London: Routledge, 2005) * ''Ethnic Conflict'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006)

Edited volumes

* ''Autonomy, Self-governance and Conflict Resolution: Innovative Approaches to Institutional Design in Divided Societies'', ed. by Marc Weller and Stefan Wolff (London: Routledge, 2005) * ''The Ethnopolitical Encyclopaedia of Europe'', ed. by Karl Cordell and Stefan Wolff (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2004) * ''Managing and Settling Ethnic Conflicts. Perspectives on Successes and Failures from Africa, Asia, and Europe'', ed. by Ulrich Schneckener and Stefan Wolff (New York and London: Hurst, 2004; US edition: Palgrave) * ''Minority Languages in Europe: Framework, Status, Prospects'', ed. by Stefan Wolff and Gabrielle Hogan-Brun (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2003) * ''Peace at Last? The Impact of the Good Friday Agreement on Northern Ireland. With a Foreword by Lord Alderdice'', ed. by Jörg Neuheiser and Stefan Wolff (New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 2003, paperback 2004) * ''Coming Home to Germany? The Integration of Ethnic Germans from Central and Eastern Europe in the Federal Republic'', ed. by David Rock and Stefan Wolff (New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 2002), * ''German Minorities in Europe: Ethnic Identity and Cultural Belonging'', ed. by Stefan Wolff (New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 2000)

References

External links

Staff profile at the University of Birmingham

Personal homepage

PSA Specialist Group on Ethnopolitics

ECPR Standing Group on Security Issues

The European Centre for Minority Issues
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolff, Stefan Wolff, Stefan Academics of the University of Birmingham Wolff, Stefan Wolff, Stefan Wolff, Stefan Wolff, Stefan Scholars of nationalism Year of birth missing (living people)