Cvete Koneska

After graduating from the American University in Bulgaria (AUBG) where she studied political science and international relations and European studies, Cvete Koneska proceeded to a Master of Arts degree at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) at University College London, focusing on Politics, Security and Integration. Following the completion of the MA course Cvete returned to Macedonia to work as a Research Fellow in a young local think-tank (Analytica) in Skopje, where she was responsible for the Security and Foreign Policy programme as well as European Approximation research. Her interest in security issues in the Balkan region resulted with an interest in pursuing a doctoral degree in politics to further investigate these questions. In 2008 she started a DPhil degree in Politics at University of Oxford, as a Weidenfeld Scholar. Her doctoral research focuses on political elites in post-conflict states, in particular comparing the post-conflict experiences of Bosnia and Macedonia, and investigating how political elites accommodate across ethnic and ideological lines on various sensitive policy issues (military and police reform, decentralization, language and education).