Elianne Shewring

Elianne Shewring is a Doctoral Researcher at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), specifically within the GIGA Institute for Middle East Studies since November 2024. She concurrently serves as a Policy Fellow at Mitvim - The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies since January 2024. Previously, she was a Research Fellow at the Sylke Tempel Fellowship Program (June 2023-June 2024) and completed an internship at Jüdisches Forum für Demokratie und gegen Antisemitismus e.V. (JFDA) (June-September 2023).

Her educational background includes an MA in International Security from Massey University and a BSc in Computer Science from The University of Auckland. This interdisciplinary foundation shapes her research at the intersection of technology and political science.

Elianne's research program focuses on digital governance and its political implications, with expertise in digital repression, cybersecurity, and civil society. She examines how digital technologies function as control mechanisms across different political systems, particularly analyzing China, Iran, and Israel. Her work investigates the tension between technological advancement, state security, and democratic values.

Her recent publications demonstrate a consistent analytical approach to technology and power structures. She has critically examined Israel's spyware legislation as potentially undermining democratic norms, analyzed intelligence analysis methodologies with focus on New Zealand, and studied water politics in the Middle East as a lens for understanding regional security dynamics. These works collectively reveal her focus on how technological tools reshape political relationships and security frameworks.

• German-Israeli Future Forum Foundation (since 2023)
• Women in International Security Deutschland e.V. (WIIS) (since 2023)

Elianne's doctoral dissertation, 'From Autocracy to Democracy: A Comparative Analysis of the Digital Control Mechanisms Employed by China, Iran, and Israel,' represents a significant scholarly contribution to understanding digital governance across political systems. Through media contributions and policy papers, she actively bridges academic research with contemporary security policy debates, particularly regarding feminist approaches to foreign policy and German-Israeli security dialogue.