Brussels Staff Profiles

Moritz Pieper started his PhD studies in International Relations at BSIS in September 2012. He earned a BA in European Studies from Maastricht University (2010), an MA in International Relations from the University of Kent, Canterbury (2012) and an MA in International Relations in Euroatlantic and Eurasian Communities from the Higher School of Economics, Moscow (2012). He has conducted part of his studies in Aix-en-Provence, France, as an exchange student in 2009.

During his studies, he completed internships with the state chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia, the German Federal Foreign Office, the Moscow office of the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation and the German embassy in Moscow.

Moritz is a teaching assistant to Dr. Tom Casier in the module on International Relations Theories.

John Heieck began his studies at the BSIS in September 2012 as a full-time PhD research student in the International Law program. Previously, John earned his Bachelor of Arts in 2002 from the University of Notre Dame (US), Juris Doctor in 2007 from the Creighton University School of Law (US), and Master of Laws in 2010 from the Leiden University School of Law (Netherlands).  From August 2010 to February 2011, John served as a legal intern in the Appeals Division of the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). In the spring of 2012, John taught as an Adjunct Professor of International Law at Creighton University. John is currently a Lecturer of Public International Law at BSIS, as well as the convenor of International Relations Theory for Lawyers.

Forthcoming publication:
J. Heieck, ‘The Responsibility Not to Veto Revisited: How the Duty to Prevent Genocide as a Jus Cogens Norm Imposes a Legal Duty Not to Veto on the Five Permanent Members of the Security Council’ in R. Barnes and V. Tzevelekos (eds.), Beyond Responsibility to Protect: Generating Change in International Law. (Forthcoming October 2015).

Erol Kalkan began his PhD studies in International Relations at the Brussels School of International Studies in 2008. Previously, he earned his BA at the Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey, and a MA in Comparative Politics at the University of York, Heslington, York, UK.

His current research examines the transformation of Turkish foreign policy in European Union accession process.

John Kotsopoulos recently completed his PhD in International Relations. His doctoral dissertation, entitled “Do Perceptions Matter? Negotiating EU-Africa Relations”, assessed the role of perceptions and individual agency in an asymmetrical negotiation process.  His case study was the Joint Africa-EU Strategy.

He holds an MSc in European Studies from the London School of Economics and an MA in Political Science from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

John is currently a consultant on foreign policy issues concerning the European Union and Africa. He worked at the Brussels-based European Policy Centre think-tank where he ran the EU-Africa Forum and the European Security and Global Governance programme. Prior to that, he was employed in Ottawa as a political desk officer at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, specialising in relations with the Commonwealth Caribbean region.