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Staff
Christiane Heidbrink (geb. Suchanek), M.A.
Personal Details

Short Information
Since January 2018 Christiane Heidbrink has been a Research Fellow at the Center for Global Studies (CGS) of the University of Bonn. She holds a Bachelor of Science in European Public Administration from the Dutch Twente University and a Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration from the University of Münster. She obtained her B.A. in Public Administration (Special Emphasis: European Studies) in 2015 and her M.A. in Political Science in 2017 with a Master’s thesis on the evaluation of State-Building measures in Afghanistan. The thesis “Digging into Chaos: Security Sector Reconstruction and State-Building in Afghanistan”, published by Tectum-Verlag, focuses in particular on efforts to build up the police and the military.
Currently, Mrs. Heidbrink is the project manager at the Bonn Power Shift Monitor (BPSM) research project, which examines the changes in international power structures after the turn of the millennium. Since January 2019, she has also been responsible for editing the Bonn Power Focus. In addition, as part of her doctoral project, she is researching the changes in (inter)national security discourses in times of the Belt and Road Initiative. Her teaching activities at the University of Bonn combine the various aspects of her academic career, including teaching on global power shifts, security policies and state-building measures.
Main research areas: International relations, global power shift, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), qualitative and quantitative power models, state building, security research, security sector reform, state transformation, transnational governance processes.
Contact Data
Department for Political Sciences and Sociology
Center for Global Studies
Genscherallee 3, Room 3.062
53113 Bonn, Germany
Phone: +49 228 73 60278Fax: +49 228 73 60273
Email: heidbrink@uni-bonn.de
Office Hours
SoSe 2022: Tuesday 13-14:30 (please register in advance).
Latest Publications
- Heidbrink, Christiane. “Between the Superpowers: What Is Germany’s China Policy?” The Diplomat (July 2023)
- Heidbrink, Christiane (2022): “Scholz’s €100 billion surprise: a paradigm shift in Germany’s security policy?” in: 9Dashline.com, März 2022. https://www.9dashline.com/article/scholzs-100-billion-surprise-a-paradigm-shift-in-germanys-security-policy.
- Gu, Xuewu et al.: China’s Engagement in Africa: Activities, Effects and Trends. Bonn: CGS Global Focus, 2022: https://www.cgs-bonn.de/de/publikationen/cgs-global-focus/
- Heidbrink, Christiane, and Conrad Becker. “Framing the Digital Silk Road’s (De)Securitisation.” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs, (August 2022). https://doi.org/10.1177/18681026221117567.
- Heidbrink, Christiane (2021): “Europa weiter stärken – Bilanz der deutschen Ratspräsidentschaft” in: Europäische Sicherheit & Technik, Januar 2021.
Latest Events
- 09.11.2022: Christiane Heidbrink – China und die neue Seidenstraße – Workshop
- 19.10.2022: Christiane Heidbrink: GSP 11. Schaumburger Plattform: Chinas “Belt and Road”-Engagement in Afrika – Vortrag
- 15.10.2022: Christiane Heidbrink: China als systemischer Rivale und Wirtschaftspartner – Vortrag
- 07.10.2022: Christiane Heidbrink: (Inter-)nationalen Sicherheitsdiskurse um die „Neue Seidenstraße“ – Vortrag
- 29.09.2022: IFSB 2022 Christiane Heidbrink: Tech middle powers in the geopolitical storm: new opportunities for strategic cooperation?
Classes
- Sommersemester 2022: Gender, Konflikt, Frieden – Feministische Politik in den Internationalen Beziehungen (VMIB)
- Sommersemester 2022: Partner, Wettbewerber, Rivale – Beziehungen zu China auf dem Prüfstein (BMIB)
- Sommersemester 2021: Forschungswerkstatt deutsch-chinesische Sicherheitsbeziehungen (BMIB)
- Wintersemester 2019/2020: Faces of Power – Das Zusammenspiel von Macht und Sicherheit
- Wintersemester 2019/2020: Peace, Power and Security – Politik(wissenschaft) kontra globale Unsicherheit