Academic interests
Isabel’s research centres on European Strategic Autonomy (ESA) and competing visions of Europe’s strategic future. Against the backdrop of an increasingly unsettled transatlantic relationship, her doctoral project examines how political actors interpret geopolitical change and transform it into narratives of strategic necessity. Rather than treating geopolitical pressures as producing self-evident political responses, the research is particularly interested in how ideas about what Europe must do, and what it can become, are constructed and contested through political discourse. Focusing on security and defence across Germany, Estonia and Spain, it explores how these competing interpretations shape what a more autonomous Europe is imagined to mean, what forms of political action are deemed necessary, and ultimately how the EU understands its place in the world.
The research is carried out as part of the EUFOG project, which brings together research on the political dynamics, policy choices and evolving partnerships through which EU foreign policy is navigating a changing international landscape. Isabel’s doctoral project, “Clashing Self-Understandings of EU Strategic Autonomy in a Context of Geopolitical Competition,” sits within EUFOG’s politics pillar.
Her wider research interests include European foreign and security policy, transatlantic relations, security and defence, geopolitics, and the EU’s role and identity as an international actor.
Background
Isabel is a Marie Curie Early Career Fellow and doctoral researcher at the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol. She holds an MSc in International Development from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom and a BA in International Relations from IE University in Spain, where she specialised in geopolitics and diplomacy.
Before beginning her PhD, she worked as a project manager in international development, managing primarily EU-funded development cooperation programmes, alongside projects funded by other international donors, with a focus on governance, inclusion, institutional reform and sustainable development.