Academic interests
Felix's research centres on European grand strategy and competing visions of Europe's role in a changing international order. Against the backdrop of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an increasingly strained transatlantic relationship and the EU's efforts to forge a new European Security Strategy, his doctoral project asks what grand strategy can mean for an actor with shared sovereignty. Rather than treating it as the preserve of great powers, or assuming that geopolitical pressure produces a single European response, the research examines how EU institutions and member states conceptualise grand strategy for Europe. Comparing the EU level with ten member states, it explores whether they move towards a common strategic vision, and ultimately how Europe imagines its place in the world.
The research is carried out as part of the EUFOG project, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie doctoral network that brings together research on the politics, policies and partnerships through which EU foreign policy is navigating a changing international landscape. Felix's doctoral project, "Is geopolitics the only game in town? The sources of Grand Strategic thought in the EU", sits within EUFOG's policy pillar.
His wider research interests include European foreign, security and defence policy, geopolitics and strategic thought, transatlantic relations, and the EU's role as an international actor.
Background
Felix is a research fellow in the Europe in the World programme at the Egmont Institute in Brussels and a doctoral researcher at Ghent University. As a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow in the EUFOG network, he is currently a guest researcher at ARENA on secondment from Egmont. He holds an MA in International Security from Sciences Po Paris and studied political science and communication in Mainz and Strasbourg.
Before beginning his PhD, Felix worked at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Berlin, where he focused on Germany's Zeitenwende, and held positions at Interpeace Europe, the German Bundestag and the German Federal Foreign Office. His previous work concentrated on European foreign and security policy, from German security policy debates to international peacebuilding.