Dr. Ieva Giedraitytė

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Dr. Ieva Giedraitytė is an Associate Professor at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Vilnius University (2021) and an MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Barcelona (2010).

Her research examines the formation and transformation of regional and global orders, with particular attention to EU and US external action, development cooperation, strategic narratives and Latin American politics. Her regional expertise focuses especially on Central America and on questions of democracy, security, external influence and asymmetric relations with the United States and the European Union.

In 2023, as a Fulbright Scholar at American University in Washington, DC, she researched EU and US regional orders and US strategy towards Central America. She continued this work as a Jean Monnet Chair EUEXT Visiting Scholar at Carleton University in 2025, where she co-taught a course on regional powers and presented “Ordering the South: The US and EU in Their Neighborhoods, 2015–2024.”

She is a member of the Central American Politics Consortium (CAPC), an international network of scholars, policymakers and civil-society actors working on Central American politics and governance. She also participates in the Jean Monnet Network “Transatlantic Network for Dialogue, Education and Multidisciplinary Research” (TANDEM, 2026–2029), which brings together European and North American scholars working on transatlantic relations, European affairs and global challenges.

Alongside her academic work, she is Research Manager at “Policy Impact Lab” and conducts evaluations and applied research in development cooperation, democracy support, migration and civil-society development. Her professional experience includes work with DG DEVCO and the EU Delegation in Honduras, as well as research and election-observation experience in Latin America.

She teaches courses on Latin American politics, European foreign policy, development cooperation, security and sustainable development, and the foreign policies of the Global South. She is also a member of the academic committee of the inter-university ARQUS MA programme “Europe as a Global Actor” and coordinates the programme at Vilnius University.

Research projects and grants

Ieva is a member of the academic committee of the inter-university ARQUS MA programme “Europe as a Global Actor” and coordinates the programme at Vilnius University. She also participates in the Jean Monnet Network “Transatlantic Network for Dialogue, Education and Multidisciplinary Research” (TANDEM, 2026–2029), which brings together European and North American scholars working on transatlantic relations, European affairs and global challenges.

Outsourced research

For nearly a decade, Ieva has been applying her expertise in the private sector – he is Research Manager at “Policy Impact Lab” and conducts evaluations and applied research in development cooperation, democracy support, migration and civil-society development.

Selected conference papers

1.  “Partnerhips in a geopolitical world. Strategic narratives of the EU’s engagement with Latin America after 2022,” ECSA-C Conference, Victoria, Canada, 2026-05-16.
2. “Performing sovereignty: right-wing anti-imperialism as a strategy of political resilience in Central America,” Conferencia Cracoviana de Latinoamericanistas, Krakow, 2026 03 12.
3. “(Un)expected Anti-Imperialists: Right-Wing Central American Elites’ Resistance to US Pressure,” SPSA Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2025 01 08-11.
4. „The US and Central America in the 21st Century: cursed by the asymmetry of power?“, Southern Political Science Association 2024 Annual Conference, New Orleans, USA, 2024 01 13.
5. „Estados Unidos y el Triángulo Norte en el siglo XXI: ¿Maldición de la asimetría de poder?“, XIII Encuentro Internacional de RedISCA, Marselles, France, 2023 -12 -13.
6. „Defending or challenging sovereignty? Latin American contestations in the context of Russian aggression in Ukraine“, EISA Conference, 2023 09 08-11.