The Kingsman National Institute announces the formation of a new, specialized interdisciplinary research group: the Aegean & Eastern Mediterranean Strategic Studies Unit (AEMSS Unit). This initiative, operating from within our School of Philosophy, Politics & Law (PPL), will bring rigorous, non-partisan academic analysis to the complex legal, economic, and security challenges emerging in our region.
Situated in Athens, the Institute is uniquely positioned to serve as an objective hub for this area of study. The AEMSS Unit is designed to bridge the critical gap between international law, political science, and quantitative economics. Its core mission is to analyse the intricate web of maritime boundary disputes, energy exploration rights, and the security of global shipping lanes that define the Eastern Mediterranean’s modern landscape.
The unit will be directed by Dr. Tomáš Petříček, our Senior Lecturer in International Relations & Security Studies, whose research has focused extensively on security and energy politics in the region. The unit will also be integrated with KNI’s Kolonaki Forum for Economic Policy (KFEP), incorporating the expertise of Dr. Eleni Zografos to model the profound trade and supply chain implications of regional instability.
“This is not a field one enters lightly, and there is, perhaps, some institutional scepticism toward launching another forum on this topic,” Dr. Petříček noted. “Our purpose is not to advocate for any single political position. Rather, our mission is to provide an objective, data-driven space for analysis, which we feel is often missing from the public discourse. It is one thing to assert a legal claim; it is a far more complex task to model the second- and third-order economic consequences of that claim on trade, insurance rates, and energy investment.”
This new unit will move beyond theoretical papers. Its primary output will be a series of detailed, data-rich policy briefings and risk models. Postgraduate students from our MA in International Relations and MSc in Econometrics will be directly integrated into the unit as research assistants. They will be tasked with applying advanced quantitative methods to map supply chain vulnerabilities and analysing the application of international maritime law precedents to the unique geography of the Aegean.
The unit’s first major undertaking will be to convene a closed-door workshop, bringing together international legal scholars, energy industry analysts, and maritime logistics experts. The goal is to move past the rhetoric and dissect the technical, legal, and financial mechanics that actually govern activity in the region.
The establishment of the AEMSS Unit is a direct expression of the Kingsman National Institute’s core “Athenian Synthesis.” It applies the classical traditions of rigorous inquiry and debate to one of the most pressing and complex geopolitical challenges of our time, aiming to provide clarity and foresight from our unique vantage point in Athens.
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