Dr. Siarhei Bohdan studies modern history, international relations and security of the Middle East, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. His focus is on non-state actors in international relations, with current research being done on the global history of Shia Islamists (Khomeini movement and the IRGC) and Uyghur political projects (pro-Soviet and pan-Turkist) over the “long 20th century”. His methodology involves opening the “black box” of the state to study subnational actors in terms of their role in international interactions, as well as investigating the logistics, geopolitical contexts, and political economy of ideological projects. This work draws on two decades of experience as a journalist, researcher, and analyst in Eastern Europe and Germany.
Room: BA.820, Bajuwarenstr. 4
E-mail: siarhei.bohdan@ur.de
Telephone: +49 941 943 68566
Note: From April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026, Dr. Siarhei Bohdan is on a research sabbatical to carry out a research project funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation "Uyghur Emancipation As A Backdoor to China: Soviet Contestation Over East Turkestan/Xinjiang with China and Turkey in the Twentieth Century."
CV
Academic Positions
| since 2/2024 | Research Associate at the Professorship for Transregional Cultures of Knowledge, Department of Interdisciplinary and Multiscalar Area Studies (DIMAS), University of Regensburg |
| 5/2019- 10/2021 | Research Associate with the Freigeist Junion Research Group “The Cold War's Clash of Civilizations”, Center for Global History, Friedrich Meinecke Institute, Free University of Berlin |
Academic Training
| 12/2017 | Award of the PhD degree by the Otto-Suhr-Institute for Political Science, Freie Universit?t Berlin (topic of the doctoral thesis: "Limits of Defiance? The Role of Post-Soviet Nations in Modernisation of Iranian Armed Forces and Defence Industries in 1989-2015") |
| 2013-2016 | PhD Studies in Political Science, Otto-Suhr-Institute for Political Science, Freie Universit?t Berlin |
| 2005-2007 | MA in Political Science, European Humanities University, Vilinius, Lithuania |
| 1994-2004 | Diploma of Specialist in International Relations, Persian Language and Japanese Language, Faculty for International Relations, Belarus State University, Minsk, Belarus (Topic of Diploma: "The PKK Factor in International Relations in the Middle East in the 1980s and 1990s") |
| 2002 | Diploma in Persian Language and Literature, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran |
Research
Research Interests
- History of the USSR in a Global Context: Socialist Internationalism, Soviet Development Aid to the Global South, Communist Parties in the Global South (Afghanistan, South Yemen)
- Russian-Chinese relations, in particular in Central Asia (Xinjiang, Afghanistan)
- History of Iran
- History of Afghanistan
- History of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)
- Transregional History of Religion
- Interactions between radical regimes and actors in the Middle East (Syria, Libya, Iraq, PLO) and the socialist world (USSR, Southern/Eastern Europe, People's Republic of China)
- History of Human Rights and Criticism of Human Rights by Illiberal Regimes (Iran, Russia, China)
Publications
Scientific articles (selection)
- "Another Third Worldism?: Iranian Islamists' Partnership with North Korea during the Cold War," Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, Volume 43, Issue 3 (2023), pp. 427-441.
- "'They Were Going Together with the Ikhwan'": The Influence of Muslim Brotherhood Thinkers on Shi'i Islamists during the Cold War," The Middle East Journal, Volume 74, Number 2 (Summer 2020), pp. 243-262
- "The War to Start all Wars? The IRGC in Kurdistan after 1979," Vienna Yearbook for Kurdish Studies, 2024/12.
Monographs
- Limits of Defiance? The Role of Post-Soviet Nations in Modernisation of the Iranian Armed Forces and Defence Industries (2019) Freie Universit?t Berlin, Universit?tsverlag. [PhD, 393 pp.]
Teaching
Summer Semester 2024
- Unfinished History: Post-Soviet Conflicts from Karabakh to Ukraine
Projects and networking
International Programmes
- Specially Appointed Associate Professor, Slavic-Eurasian Research Centre, Hokkaido, Japan (Summer 2024)
Dr. Bohdan Awarded Research Fellowship from Gerda Henkel Foundation
Dr. Bohdan has been awarded a research fellowship from the Gerda Henkel Foundation to carry out a research project "Uyghur Emancipation As A Backdoor to China: Soviet Contestation Over East Turkestan/Xinjiang with China and Turkey in the Twentieth Century."
In the project, Dr. Bohdan plans to explore how the Soviet Union provided support for Uyghur nationalist movements during the twentieth century, both during the existence of the Republic of China and the First and Second East Turkestan Republics, as well as later following the founding of the People's Republic of China. Bohdan plans to conduct research trips to Kazakhstan, Turkey, and other countries to explore how Moscow's policies towards Uyghur groups changed following the Sino-Soviet Split and as the Republic of Turkey courted Uyghur nationalist groups.
In order to carry out this research project, Dr. Bohdan will be on sabbatical from April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026.
Dr. Bohdan Delivers Lecture on Syrian Support for Kurdish Movements During the Cold War
On October 18, 2024, Dr. Bohdan delivered a lecture at the University of Kyoto's CSEAS Eurasia Seminar with the title "'Syria Is Your Country!': External Alliances of Kurdish Guerrilla Movements During the Cold War."
Dr. Bohdan Named Specially Appointed Associate Professor at Slavic-Eurasian Research Center (Hokkaido, Japan)
During the 2024 summer semester, Dr. Bohdan was awarded a fellowship and appointed as Specially Appointed Associate Professor at the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center (external link, opens in a new window) in Hokkaido, Japan. During his time in Hokkaido, Dr. Bohdan delivered several lectures related to his research on the global history of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and current events in Eastern Europe:
- "No Place for Neutrality? Belarus and the Conflict in Eastern Europe (2014-2024)" (October 17, 2024)
- "Where There Is More of God? Revolutionary Islamist Iran and Its Partners in Moscow and Pyongyang (1979-1991)" (October 16, 2024)
- "The Global History of Islamic Revolutionary Guards: (Post-)Soviet Episodes" (July 22, 2024)
- "The End of History: How I Study It in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia" (June 14, 2024)