Kuus, Merje

Merje Kuus’ research focuses on political geography and geopolitics-particularly on policy-making processes in complex bureaucratic structures. In broad terms, it investigates how political practices are underpinned by spatially defined categories like center and margin, inside and outside, self and other. These categories are central to the processes by which complex political issues come to be defined and managed in a particular manner. Within that problematic, Dr. Kuus’ interests converge on the question of how specifically spatial categories function in daily politics at various sites-for example, within foreign policy bureaucracies. By virtue of her ‘regional’ expertise, Dr. Kuus is also keenly interested in the ways in which places and regions are ‘written onto’ our mental maps on a daily basis.

Research Interests: Political geography and geopolitics, Security and state sovereignty, Policy processes, Borders, Identity and nationalism.