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Dr Vera Michlin-Shapir is an expert in Strategic Communications, specialising in how states work to shape international perceptions to pursue strategic goals. Her work spans the domains of security studies, political communications and foreign policy, with Russia serving as a key case study. She is Director of Education at the Sympodium Institute for Strategic Communications, she designs and delivers our educational programmes. Prior to joining Sympodium, Dr Michlin-Shapir was a Lecturer of Strategic Communications in the War Studies Department at King’s College London. She is the author of Fluid Russia: Between the Global and the National in the Post‑Soviet Era (Cornell University Press, 2021), which investigates globalisation’s impact on Russian identity. Most recently, she co-authored Deciphering Russian Enigma: In 15 Questions and 30 Answers (Palgrave Macmillan, June 2024).
From 2016 to 2020, she was a Neubauer Fellow and a Research Fellow at INSS.
Dr Michlin-Shapir previously served at Israel’s National Security Council in the Prime Minister’s Office, advising on Russia‑related strategic policy. She holds a BA from King’s College London, an MPhil in Russian and East European Studies from Oxford (St Antony’s College), and a PhD from Tel Aviv University.
