On 10 June 2026 Marije Balt will defend her thesis examining how European diplomats navigated EU–Türkiye migration cooperation during a period of geopolitical tension and implementation disputes.
- PhD student
- Date
- Wednesday 10 Jun 2026, 15:00 - 17:00
- Type
- PhD defence
- Spoken Language
- English
- Room
- Aula B
- Location
- International Institute of Social Studies
Balt's thesis introduces the concept of the high-stakes arena to capture settings in which cooperation remains necessary but becomes politically costly and difficult to sustain.
Using a dual-lens approach that combines official discourse analysis with a practice-based study of diplomacy, the thesis shows how EU policy discourse was translated into locally workable diplomatic scripts. It highlights the everyday practices through which diplomats kept channels open, managed sensitivities and preserved room for manoeuvre, focusing in particular on diplomats from north-western EU member states in Türkiye between 2020 and 2024.
The thesis develops a typology of diplomatic styles that shows how diplomats adapted to mandates, peer expectations and host-country conditions while shaping EU leverage and external positioning. The typology offers a framework that can also be tested in other high-stakes diplomatic arenas.
Doctoral Board
Chair
Doctoral dissertation supervisor
Professor Thea Hilhorst
Dr Simona Vezzoli
Full Doctoral Committee
- Professor M. Murat Erdogan, Migration Research Foundation
- Professor Jan Melissen, University of Antwerp
- Dr Müge Kinacioglu, Leiden University
- Professor Dirk-Jan Koch, ISS
- Dr Zeynep Kasli, ISS
- More information
The ceremony will begin promptly at 15:00 hrs in the ISS auditorium (Aula B) of the ISS, Kortenaerkade 12, The Hague. The doors will be closed after the start of the Public Defence, but will be briefly opened after the candidate’s introduction to allow latecomers to enter.
Children under 7 years old are not allowed in the Aula during the first part of the ceremony.
The ceremony will be followed by a reception in the Atrium of the ISS.
Professors are invited to join the academic procession.
- Related links
- ISS PhD programme
