PhD in Political Science, Northeastern University, Boston, USA [2015]

Thesis: ‘Stasis among Powers: Yugoslav Destruction after the Cold War’

M.A. in Security Studies, University of Belgrade, Serbia [2009]

Thesis: 'The NATO-Russia Relations, 1999-2003’

L.L.B, University of Belgrade, Serbia [2006]

Mladen Mrdalj is a Lecturer in Political Science at the College of Liberal Arts, Wenzhou-Kean University in China. Immediately after starting his PhD studies, Mladen has been co-leading the Dialogue of Civilizations summer semester program which introduces American students to the Western Balkans. In 2022, Mladen expanded his Dialogue of Civilizations work to Central Asia, taking Northeastern students to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Upon returning to Serbia in 2016, he worked at the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development, a think-tank ran by the former Serbian foreign affairs minister who also served as the president of the UN General Assembly. In this capacity Mladen researched Middle Eastern forced migrations to Europe along the “Balkan Route”. After that he worked on the political campaigns for the UN Secretary General and in presidential elections in Serbia. Mladen returned to full time teaching in 2019, when he joined the International Burch University in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, but already in the fall of 2020 he moved to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where he joined Webster University. In parallel, Mladen is developing a full year study abroad opportunity in Belgrade (Serbia) for international students interested in Balkan politics and societies (www.balkansemester.org). Since 2020 Mladen has regularly appeared in Serbian and regional TV and printed media, commenting on Serbian, regional, and international politics. You can find him on twitter @mladen_mrdalj

In general, my research interests cover both Balkan and international politics, as well as electoral systems and theories of civil wars.

1. “Opportunities along the Balkan Route: Policy Proposals for Modernizing the Response to Forced Migration”, co-authored with Dr. Denis J. Sullivan, vol. 3, November 2016, CIRSD and BCARS, Boston, USA http://media.wix.com/ugd/55e102_197492d252544ae2b4a2b489eabfe24f.pdf 

2. “From Pararepublic to Parastate: International Leverage in Shaping Kosovo’s Secession”, Nationalities Papers 48(1):42-60, January 2020, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

3. “Reforma sistema nacionalne bezbednosti u Srbiji”, Humanističke studije, UDG, Podgorica, Montenegro, vol. 1, 2019, pp. 157 - 79 (On problems of security system reform in Serbia)

4. “An Uneasy Collaboration or a Third Global Frontline?”, Horizons, vol. 21, Summer 2022, pp. 208 - 222, Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development, Belgrade, Serbia, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48686710 

5. “The Israel-Hamas War Has Killed the West’s Values-Based Foreign Policy”, The National Interest, November 8, 2023, at https://nationalinterest.org/feature/israel-hamas-war-has-killed-west%E2%80%99s-values-based-foreign-policy-207187 

PS 1010 – Introduction to Political Science

PS 2100 – American Government and Politics

PS 2400 – Introduction to International Relations