Tobias SCHUMACHER

Prof. Dr. Tobias SCHUMACHER is Professor of European Studies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway and Senior Professorial Fellow at the College of Europe in Natolin. At the latter, he served as first Chairholder of the European Neighbourhood Chair between 2012 and 2023. Between 2023 and 2025 he was deputy coordinator of the international research project "REDEMOS - Reconfiguring EU Democracy Support towards a Sustained Demos in the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood", financed by the European Union for the period 2023-2025 in the framework of its Horizon Europe program, and he was work package leader on behalf of the College of Europe in Natolin in the international, Horizon 2020-financed research project "ENGAGE - Envisioning a New Governance Architecture for a Global Europe".

He has held a number of distinguished fellowships, including: John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow at the Minda de Gunzburg Centre for European Studies at Harvard University, Cambridge MA., USA; Visiting Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, United Kingdom; Marie Curie Fellow and Jean Monnet Fellow respectively at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy; and Associate Senior Research Fellow at the Center for International Studies (CEI), Lisbon University Institute, Lisbon, Portugal. For several years, he has also been serving as Visiting Professor at Sciences Po, Rennes, France.

Prof. Dr. SCHUMACHER is the author of more than 100 books, edited volumes, articles, book chapters, and policy papers on EU external action towards the EU's neighbourhood and beyond, and Middle East and North African politics as well as Eastern European politics, respectively. His journal articles have appeared in, inter alia, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, West European Politics, Geopolitics, Mediterranean Politics, Democratization, European Security, Contemporary Politics, Global Affairs, European Foreign Affairs Review, Global Discourse, and many others.

He is a frequent contributor to international media outlets. Inter alia, he was interviewed by media outlets such as Wall Street Journal, CTV News Channel, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Die Zeit, Österreichischer Rundfunk, Swiss Radio, tbs eFM South Korea, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Polskie Radio, LUSA, Ansa, Publico, Visao, Makedonia, The Times, An Nahar, Sanlian Life Weekly, Dagsavisen, ABC Nyheter, Adresseavisen, VG. His opinion pieces have appeared in: The New Republic, Europe's World, openDemocracy, New Europe, Project Syndicate, Financial Times Deutschland, Frankfurter Rundschau, The European Voice, Adresseavisen.

Prof. Dr. SCHUMACHER has advised various Directorate-Generals of the European Commission, the European External Action Service (EEAS), as well as several Foreign Ministries of EU Member States. He has also been part of many external evaluations on issues such as, e.g., EU macro-financial assistance, EU communication practices, EU Twinning, and higher education in Eastern Europe, commissioned by, inter alia, the European Commission and the Austrian Development Agency (ADA).  

He is a Member of the Editorial Board of Insight Turkey; Member of the Scientific Board, Institute for European Politics, Berlin, Germany; Member of the Academic Council, European Neighbourhood Council, Brussels, Belgium; Member of the International Advisory Board, Belgrade Center for Security Policy (BCSP), Belgrade, Serbia; and Member of the International Advisory Board, book series Europe and the world, Lexington Books / Rowman and Littlefield.
 

Selected publications

Books

• The Routledge Handbook on the European Neighbourhood Policy (edited with A. Marchetti and T. Demmelhuber), London and New York: Routledge, 2018.
• The Revised European Neighbourhood Policy: Continuity and Change in EU Foreign Policy (edited with D. Bouris), Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2017.
• Die Europäische Union als internationaler Akteur im südlichen Mittelmeerraum. ‚Actor Capability‘ und EU-Mittelmeerpolitik, Baden-Baden: NOMOS, 2005.

Selected articles in Peer Reviewed Journals

• ‘EU external differentiated integration in aviation and trade: what drives Southern neighbours?’, West European Politics, Vol. 48, No. 5, 2025: 1029-1058.
• ‘Beyond External Incentives: The European Union, Wartime Enlargement and the Candidate Countries in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans’, JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies,      Vol. 63, S1, 2025: 180-192.
• 'The EU and the neighbourhood: The politics of muddling through', JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 58, S1, 2020: 187-201.
• ‘The EU, Middle Eastern powers and milieu-shaping in the ‘shared’ Arab Mediterranean neighbourhood: a story of mutual neglect’, Contemporary Politics, Vol. 24, No. 1, 2018: 46-64. 
• 'Uncertainty at the EU’s borders: narratives of EU external relations in the revised European Neighborhood Policy towards the southern borderlands', European Security, Vol. 24, No. 3, 2015: 381-401.
• 'From the ENP to EMP: What’s at Stake with the European Neighbourhood Policy towards the Southern Mediterranean?', European Foreign Affairs Review, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2005: 17-38 (with R. Del Sarto). 

Prof. Tobias SCHUMACHER's list of publications is available also at: Google Scholar and ResearchGate.