About Us

Dr Spyridon Plakoudas obtained a BA in International Politics and Security at the Panteion University in Greece and proceeded to obtain his MSc and PhD in Strategic Studies in the UK at the Universities of Aberystwyth and Reading respectively.

Dr Plakoudas researches and publishes keenly on the intra-state (or civil) wars in the Middle East and his new monograph actually examines the partnership between the USA and Syrian Kurds amidst the Syrian Civil War.

Dr Plakoudas cooperates with leading think tanks in the Middle East and West, such as the Emirates Policy Center, the BESA Center and ELIAMEP, and frequently appears in the press and media (e.g. Sky News Arabia or Vietnam State TV).

•   BA (Hons) in International Politics and Security

•   MSc in Strategic Studies

•   PhD in Strategic Studies

•   Military Strategy and Security

•   International Politics

•   International Security

•   Geopolitics of the Middle East

•   Homeland Security

•   His doctoral thesis at the University of Reading examined how an insurgency can be defeated, while his post-doc at the University of Macedonia assessed the possible outcomes of a civil war.

•   His research interests, however, do not end in civil wars; they extend to other areas of International Security such as proxy warfare, surrogate warfare and even defence industry exports.

•   His research outputs include, inter alia, 2 monographs in English and 2 in Greek, 15 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 3 policy papers for think tanks.

Books

Proxy Warfare on the Cheap: The USA and the PYD in the Syrian Civil War (with Dr Wojciech Michnik) (Rowman and Littlefield, in process)

Πόλεμος και Ειρήνη: Ο Αγώνας των Κούρδων στην Τουρκία [War and Peace: The Struggle of the Kurds in Turkey] (Thessaloniki: Epicentro Publications, 2021)

Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Turkey: The New PKK (New York: Palgrave–Macmillan, 2018)

(advance endorsement by Dr Mehmet Gurses, Prof. Michael Gunter, Dr Costas Koliopoulos and Mr Cengiz Candar)

Ο Ελληνικός Εμφύλιος Πόλεμος (1946-1949): Πεδίο Μάχης του Ψυχρού Πολέμου [The Greek Civil War (1946-1949): Battlefield of the Cold War] (Thessaloniki: Epicentro Publications, 2017)

The Greek Civil War: Strategy, Counter-Insurgency and the Monarchy (London: IB Tauris, 2017)

(advance endorsement by Prof. Beatrice Heuser)




Chapters in Edited Volumes

“Energy in Cyprus: A Curse or Blessing?” in Pantelis Sklias, Spyros Roukanas and Floros Flouros (eds.): The Political Economy of National and Energy Security (Athens; New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2019), pp. 193-214

“Nikiforos-Toxotis: The Rise and Fall of the Greek Doctrine of Extended Deterrence (1994-2000)” in Beatrice D. Heuser, Tormod Heier and Guillaume Lasconjarias (eds.): Military Exercises, Political Messaging and Strategic Impact (Rome: NATO Defense College, 2018), pp. 245-259

“Guerrilla and Counter-Guerrilla Tradition in Greece: Limits of their Influence” in Beatrice D. Heuser and Eitan Shamir (eds.): Insurgencies and Counterinsurgencies: National Styles and Strategic Cultures (Reading: Cambridge University Press, 2017), pp. 269-287




Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

and Wojciech Michnik: “The Biden Administration and Rojava: Old Wine in New Bottle”, submitted to the Middle East Policy (a Q1 Scopus-indexed journal) on January 10, 2022

and Wojciech Michnik: “Whither the Syrian Kurds?”, Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 4 (2021), pp. 1-9

and Wojciech Michnik: “The US Withdrawal and the Scramble for Syria”, Wild Blue Yonder, Vol. 1, No. 1 (2020), pp. 31-39

and Petros Violakis: «Η σχέση Λιβύης – Τουρκίας θα πυροδοτήσει σύγκρουση στην Αν. Μεσόγειο;» [“The Turkey-Libya Relationship will Trigger a War in the Eastern Mediterranean?”], Foreign Affairs (in Greek) No. 62 (2020), pp. 21-33

“How insurgencies end: the quest for government victory”, Revista Científica General José María Córdova (Colombian Journal of Military and Strategic Studies), Vol. 17, No. 28 (2019), pp. 603-623

“The Impact of the Arab Spring on the Security and Stability in the Balkans”, Balkan Studies, Vol. 51 (2018), pp. 85-98

“The Syrian Kurds and the PYD: The Outsider in the Syrian War”, Mediterranean Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 1 (2017), pp. 99-116

“Doomed from the Start? Peace Negotiations in the Greek Civil War, January-July 1947”, Balkan Studies, Vol. 50 (2017), pp. 135-159




Policy Papers

“The Recent Turnaround of the Greek Defence Industry” (Washington D.C.: Newlines Institute, December 2021)

“The Greek Defence Industry in the 21st Century: Hope at Last?” (Bar Ilan University: BESA, September 2021)

“How the EU Lost in Libya” (Athens: ELIAMEP, February 2021)