Dr. Stella Gerani is a Senior Analyst in the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS) and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research examines Turkey’s strategic expansion into Africa through hybrid engagement strategies that blur the boundaries between soft and hard power. Her current work focuses on the security implications for the MENA region, with particular attention to Turkey’s interests in Syria and the Red Sea.
Dr. Gerani teaches Energy Politics and Security in the postgraduate program MSc in Energy Law, Business, Regulation, and Policy at the International Hellenic University. She has also taught International Relations, Turkish Politics, and War Theory at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the University of Macedonia.
She holds a PhD in International and European Studies (2019) from the University of Macedonia and a BA in Classics from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her academic experience spans Greece and Israel. During her doctoral studies, she was a member of the research teams at the Thucydides Chair and The Hellenic National Defense General Staff Chair in Strategic Studies (2016–2018), where her work explored the strategic dynamics among Greece, Cyprus, and Israel in the areas of defense, energy, and security.
In 2016, she received a Research Scholarship from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel to conduct research at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University (Tel Aviv). Her research has been published in academic journals and presented at international and European conferences.