Director
Professor Dr. Plamen Pantev
Born 1952, Bulgarian citizen. Graduate of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridsky”, Law Department. Ph. D. in International Relations and International Law of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridsky”, Law Department (1986). Associate Professor at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridsky” since 1996 and Professor since 2008.
Founder and Director of the Institute for Security and International Studies (ISIS), Sofia, 1994, which is member of the family of the institutes for international relations, foreign and security policy of the EU member states under the umbrella of the EU ISS. ISIS is co-founder and member of the NATO/PfP Consortium of the Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes in Zurich, 1998. ISIS is member of the Network of institutes at the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium since 2017 www.nonproliferation.eu . ISIS is contributing to the CIAO, Columbia University, New York since 2019 www.ciaonet.org.
Professor at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridsky”, lecturing Law and International Relations students in ‘Theory of International Relations’, ‘Theory of International Negotiations’, ‘Introduction to Security Studies’, ‘Balkan and Black Sea Security Issues’, ‘EU Security and Defense Policy’, ‘International Security Negotiations’ and ‘Democratic Control of the Security Sector’. Founder and Head of the International Security M. A. Program, Sofia University “St Kliment Ohridsky”. Member of the Specialized Scientific Council in International Relations at the Supreme Testimonial Commission with the Council of Ministers of Bulgaria (2004-2011). Permanent member of Scientific Juries in International Relations and International Law since 2011.
Co-Chairman of the Study Group on Regional Stability in South East Europe (2002-2011) and of the Euro-Atlantic Study Group (1999- 2003) of the NATO/PfP Consortium of the Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes.
An IREX Researcher on nuclear and space security issues and negotiations at Columbia University, New York, Johns Hopkins University, SAIS, Washington, D. C. and Harvard University, Law School in 1988-89; a NATO Individual Fellow in 1995-97 on the topic of the changing Bulgarian civil-military relations; USIA fellow at the Michigan University in Ann Arbor on ‘The Making of the US Foreign Policy’ in 1997. Ford Foundation/WEU Institute for Security Studies Fellow at the Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome, 1992, and Foreign Researcher at The Netherlands Institute for International Relations ‘Clingendael’ in 1993.
National Defence College in Stockholm Seminar participant on Nordic Security Issues in September 2000, on European Security Policy in 2010, and Senior Executive Course Student at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, Garmisch- Partenkirchen in September 2001. Consultant to the Delegation of the European Commission in Sofia on foreign and regional policy of Bulgaria (1997-2001); Lecturer at Harvard University Law School, Cambridge in February 1989, Århus University, Denmark in October 1992, ELIAMEP, Halki, Greece in September 1994 and September 2005, Sandhurst Academy, UK in March 2001, NATO Defence College, Rome in May 2002, at the Henry L. Stimpson Center, Washington, D. C. in May 2003, at the Diplomatic Academy, Vienna in July 2004, at the Institute for European Policy, Berlin/Andrassy University, Budapest in September 2005, at the George Bush School of Government and Public Policy of Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA in March 2006 and at the International Master Program on Peace, Conflict and Development Studies at Universitat Jaume I, Castellón – Spain (2013).
Author of four books, co-author in 17 other books and more than one hundred and fifty academic publications in the fields of international, regional and national security, transatlantic relations, ESDP, theory of international relations and international law, foreign-policy forecasting, Bulgarian foreign and security policy, security issues of the Southeast European and the Black Sea regions, civil-military relations and security sector reform, and international negotiations – in Bulgarian, English, German, Italian, French, Ukrainian, Russian and Bahasa (the official Indonesian language).
Member of the International Advisory Boards of the ‘Journal of International Negotiation’ (1996-2011) and ‘Europe’s World’ (the first EU-wide policy journal, Brussels). Member of the International Studies Association (ISA) since 1997.
Editor in Chief of the Monthly electronic periodical ‘Balkan Regional Profile’ and of the Quarterly electronic periodical ‘Black Sea Basin Regional Profile’ (1999-May 2005) – www.isis-bg.org. Vice Dean of the Law School of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridsky” (2006-2011). Member of the Academy of Poitical Science, New York since 2010. Member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) www.iiss.org, London since 2013. Member of Vanga Foundation www.fondacia-vanga.com since 2013. Married, one child, one grandchild.