Valeriia Gergiieva

Dr. Valeriia Gergiieva serves as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy (IFSH) in Hamburg, Germany, within the 'Arms Control and Emerging Technologies' research area. She concurrently holds research fellowships at the Odessa Center for Nonproliferation and the Center for International Studies, Faculty of International Relations at Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University, Ukraine. Her prior appointments include Visiting Fellowships at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) in Monterey (2019) and The Arctic University of Norway's Centre for Peace Studies (2018), alongside a 2018-2019 research exchange at IFSH.

Gergiieva's research program centers on nuclear proliferation threats in contemporary geopolitics, specifically analyzing nuclear weapons as political instruments and US Nonproliferation policy through critical case studies of Iran and North Korea. She examines Iran's strategic culture to evaluate JCPOA re-engagement possibilities and investigates how nuclear programs evolve from nonproliferation concerns to deterrence frameworks, with particular attention to regional security dynamics in the Middle East and Northeast Asia. Her methodological approach integrates strategic culture analysis with international relations theory to decode state behavior in high-tension contexts.

Her 2019-2021 publications reveal consistent thematic focus on nuclear security challenges, including analyses of North Korea's deterrence posture, US policy evolution toward Iran across presidential administrations, and oil-driven alliances in US-Saudi relations. By applying theoretical frameworks like neorealism and neoliberal institutionalism to nuclear policy questions, her work bridges academic scholarship and practical nonproliferation challenges, highlighting how emerging geopolitical instabilities reshape traditional arms control paradigms.

At IFSH, Gergiieva contributes to the 'Arms Control and Emerging Technologies' research group, collaborating on projects addressing technological dimensions of modern security threats. Her work within this interdisciplinary team focuses on how emerging technologies intersect with nuclear proliferation risks, supporting the institute's mission to develop innovative approaches to contemporary arms control challenges through rigorous policy-relevant research.