Leadership
Karina Utegulova is a Policy Analyst and Deputy Programme Director at the Centre for International Security and Economic Strategy (CISES), where she works on economic security, EU governance, and the intersection of law, technology, and geopolitics. She holds a Master’s degree in European Studies (Law and Economics of the EU) from Sapienza University of Rome, with a research focus on cybersecurity, privacy, and cross-border investigations in EU criminal law.
Her work at CISES includes a range of policy briefings on EU digital governance, migration, and economic security. She has published analysis on the EU E-Evidence Regulation and its operational implications for cross-border investigations, as well as on data-driven migration control and the use of AI in EU border governance. Her research also examines broader geopolitical and economic developments, including EU migration policy debates and the use of offshore asylum processing.
In the field of economic security, her work focuses on the growing use of economic instruments as tools of statecraft. She has contributed analysis on critical minerals diplomacy, supply chain restructuring, and the EU’s evolving economic security strategy, including the shift from open strategic autonomy towards a more geoeconomic approach to global competition. As Deputy Programme Director of the Economics and Trade Programme, she contributes to shaping the programme’s analytical direction, supports policy analysts in developing rigorous and policy-relevant work, and promotes research that bridges legal analysis with economic and geopolitical strategy.
“As Deputy Programme Director of the Economics and Trade Programme, I am particularly interested in how economic instruments are increasingly used as tools of geopolitical strategy. I would like the programme to explore how trade, sanctions, and regulatory frameworks shape power dynamics in the international system, while maintaining a strong focus on EU policy developments. My aim is to support the production of clear, analytically rigorous, and policy-relevant work that reflects the evolving nature of economic statecraft.”
