Prof. Dr. Ilias Iliopoulos is Senior Advisor in the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS). He was awarded his PhD (Dr. phil) from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich (Grade: magna cum laude) where he studied History of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, Modern History, and Political Science/International Relations.
In the last twenty-five years he had been, among others, a Professor of the Hellenic National Defence College, the Naval War College – Command and Staff College, the Air War College, and the National Security College of the Hellenic Police, an Associate Professor of the American College of Greece – Deree, a Senior Researcher of the Defence Analyses Institute of the Greek Ministry of Defence, and a Visiting Scholar of the Taiwan Center for Security Studies of the National Chengchi University (NCCU), Taipei. He currently teaches at the Department of Turkish Studies and Modern Asian Studies of the University of Athens.
His fields of expertise and interest: International Relations, International Security, Maritime History, Geopolitics of Sea Power, International Shipping Policy, Geopolitics of Asia-Pacific/Indo-Pacific, World Island – Rimland Rivalry, Modern History, History of Western Civilization, Economic History of Europe, Democracy and Imperialism, Lessons Learned from Thucydides, Strategies of Small Powers, National Security Strategy, Decision Making.
Further, Prof. Dr. Ilias Iliopoulos is a graduate of the U.S. Institute on American Politics and American Political Thought of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Cultural & Educational Affairs, and the University of Massachusetts/Amherst. He published several books, monographs, articles, and strategic analyses on History, Geography and Strategy of Sea Power; The New Silk Road from the Far East to Turkey and the Middle East, and the Quest for Regional Hegemony; Geopolitics of Sea Power: Case Study Great Britain 1815-1956; Foreign Relations of Turkey 1935-1945; Israel’s Strategy in the Six-Day-War; The German Foreign Policy after the Re-unification; Civil-Military Relations and Defence Diplomacy; The Burden of Naval History and Geopolitics in Asia-Pacific; The Geostrategic Significance of the Outer Islands Perimeter: The Case of Taiwan; European Security and Defence in a Geopolitical and Geo-cultural Context; Homeland Security Policy; Why ‘Europe’ Is Not – Nor Shall It Ever Be – A Great Power, etc.
He was awarded the First Prize for the best essay on Naval History and Strategy given by the magazine Naval Review of the Hellenic Navy General Staff for his work on The Geostrategic Significance of the Greek Maritime Space under particular consideration of the position of Greece as a Coastal State and a Maritime Nation.