Doc. Mats Braun, Ph.D.

mats.braun@aauni.edu

Letenská 5, Prague 1

Mats Braun is a Senior Lecturer in Senior Lecturer in International Relations and European Studies at Anglo-American University. He has previously served as Associate Professor in Political Science at Södertörn University, Stockholm. He was also named Associate Professor of Territorial Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in 2017. During the fall of 2015, he was a visiting scholar at the Cornell Institute for European Studies, Ithaca. From 2010 to 2016 he served as a member of the Executive Council of the Central and East European International Studies Association (CEEISA). From 2018 to 2022, he was a member of the Evaluation panel on Juridical and Political Science of the Czech Science Foundation. He previously lectured at Dalarna University, Sweden, Charles University and Metropolitan University Prague. He was a European Commission Jean Monnet Chair holder from 2022 to 2025. Since 2023, he is the Director of the Institute of International Relations, Prague.

His fields of expertise include: Theories of International Relations, Regional Integration, Global Environmental Politics and Central and Eastern European Politics.

Selected publications:

Books

  • Braun, M. (2021). The Politics of Regional Cooperation and the Impact on the European Union, A Study of Nordic Cooperation and the Visegrad Group. Edvard Elgar Publishing. (Link)
  • Braun, M. (2014 and 2016). Europeanization of Environmental Policy in the New Europe: Beyond Conditionality. Routledge. (Link)
  • Braun, M. (2008). Modernisation Unchallenged: The Czech Discourse on European Unity. ÚMV. (Link)

Articles

  • Braun, M. (2025). The European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union – three rationalities of interaction and the problem of non-democratic regionalism. Journal of European Integration, 47(4), 581–600. (Link)
  • Gromilova, A., & Braun, M. (2024). Competing Narratives of the Eurasian Economic Union. Europe-Asia Studies, 76(10), 1621-1643. (Link)
  • Kovalevska, O., & Braun, M. (2023). The EU’s Green Peace Narrative and Russia: Russia’s War in Ukraine in the EU’s Climate Narrative. Czech Journal of International Relations, 58(2), 107–119. (Link)
  • Braun, M., Gromilova, A., & Melnikovová, L. (2023). Understanding Economic Integration in the Eurasian Economic Union–the Relevance of Integration Theories. Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 32(1), 66–79. (Link)
  • Gromilova, A., & Braun, M. (2022). The unwrapping of various understandings of statelessness in Latvian media discourse. New Perspectives, 30(3), 210-229. (Link)
  • Braun, M. (2021). Why nationalism is not the right doctrine to combat climate change – A Central European perspective. New Perspectives, 29(2), 1-11. (Link)
  • Braun, M. (2020). Postfunctionalism, Identity and the Visegrad Group. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 58(4), 925-940. (Link)
  • Braun, M. (2019). The Czech Republic’s approach to the EU 2030 climate and energy framework. Environmental Politics, 28(6), 1105-1123. (Link)
  • Braun, M., Avdic, A., Gromilova, A., & Volfova, G. O. (2017). The EU’s Normative Impact on Its Neighbourhood. The Central European Journal of International and Security Studies, 11(2). (Link)
  • Braun, M., & Karlas, J. (2016). Evropská integrace hlavním tématem českého oboru mezinárodních vztahů. Mezinárodní vztahy, 51(1), 56-67. (Link)
  • Braun, M. (2014). EU Climate Norms in East-Central Europe. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 52(3), 445-460. (Link)
  • Braun, M. (2013). Europeanization post conditionality? The story of Czech Environmental Policy after Accession. Politics in Central Europe, 9(1), 5-26.
  • Braun, M. (2008). Talking Europe — the Dilemma of Sovereignty and Modernization. Cooperation and Conflict, 43(4), 297-420. (Link)

Recent Policy Publications

  • Braun et. al. (2024). Policy Paper ÚMV – The Future of EU Enlargement in a Geopolitical Perspective https://www.iir.cz/en/the-future-of-eu-enlargement-in-a-geopolitical-perspective-1
  • Braun, M., Ayan Musil, P., & Šitera, D. (Eds.). (2025). The Shifting World 2025: Analýzy ÚMV. Institute of International Relations. https://www.iir.cz/en/iir-analyses-the-shifting-world-2025
  • Braun, M., Kovář, J., Cristani, F and Steuer, C. (Eds.). The Shifting World 2026: Analýzy ÚMV. Institute of International Relations https://www.iir.cz/en/the-2026-analyses-focus-on-the-transformation-of-the-international-order

Recent Research Projects

  • 2025 – 2028: Foreign Interference in The Context of Geopolitical and Technological Change (INTERFER) , OP JAK, registration number: CZ.02.01.01/00/23_025/0008692. (Link)
  • 2022 – 2024: Czech-Norwegian Initiative for the Coherent European Diplomacy in Times of War and Energy Crisis, EEA and Norway grants, EHP-BFNU-OVNKM-4-085-2022, guarantor
  • 2021 – 2023: Integration within the Eurasian Economic Union from a post-functionalist perspective, Czech Science Foundation GA21-14665S, principal investigator