Markus Göransson

Markus Balázs Göransson is an Assistant Professor in War Studies at the Swedish Defense University and holds a PhD in International Politics from Aberystwyth University. His research focuses on military affairs in Soviet and post-Soviet Eurasia, including Russian/Soviet military debates and ground tactics.

Prior to taking up his current position at the Swedish Defense University in 2018, he completed a postdoc at the Stockholm School of Economics, working on a project about Syrian war refugees in Lebanon. His PhD thesis, completed in 2016, concerned Soviet-Afghan War veterans in Tajikistan and their emergence as a social and political collective in the 1980s. It was runner up for the British International Studies Association’s prize for best doctoral thesis in international studies in the UK in that year.

Dr Göransson has published on Soviet-Afghan War veterans, Russian military discourse and fieldwork methods in post-conflict research contexts. Much of his research is interview-based and has taken him to post-conflict and otherwise fragile contexts, including the Philippines, Burundi, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon. He has also done research on Soviet-Afghan War veterans in Ukraine, Lithuania and Latvia. He holds an MA in Conflict Studies and Human Rights from Utrecht University (cum laude) and a BA Hons. in Modern History from the University of Oxford.

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Aberystwyth University (2011 — 2016)
• Master of Arts (MA) Utrecht University (2008 — 2009)
• BA Hons. University of Oxford (2005 — 2008)

Companies

• Assistant Professor Swedish Defence University (2018)
• Columnist Vestmanlands Läns Tidning (2019 — 2020)
• Postdoc Stockholm School of Economics (2017 — 2018)
• Research Consultant Free-lance (2010 — 2018)
• Teacher International Baccalaureate (2016 — 2016)
• Seminar tutor Aberystwyth University (2011 — 2014)
• Junior Research Fellow University of Central Asia (2013 — 2013)
• Research Assistant The Clingendael Institute (2010 — 2010)
• Intern B92 (2006 — 2007)

Skills

• Policy
• Higher Education
• International Development

Other

Academic Writing, Political Science, Report Writing, Public Speaking, Intercultural Communication, Politics, International Relations