Biography

Moritz S. Graefrath earned his PhD in political science with a specialization in international relations (IR) from the University of Notre Dame in 2023. Before joining the Max Weber Programme, he served as a Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft fellow with a joint appointment at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Security Studies Program at MIT.

His research operates at the intersection of IR theory and international security, focusing on great power politics and conceptual innovation. It has appeared in International Theory, is under review at several journals, and he has presented it at meetings of APSA, ISA, ISSS-IS, MPSA, and several other venues.

During his graduate studies, Moritz taught three undergraduate classes as an instructor of record and served as a teaching assistant with independently led sections for several years. He has taught classes both alone and with co-instructors and has experience with in-person and virtual formats. Like his research, the classes he has taught have covered a diverse range of topics in IR theory and international security and were often interdisciplinary in nature.

While at the EUI, Moritz plans to work on several article-length projects to submit for publication by the end of the academic year. He will also begin the process of turning his dissertation, which investigates the nature and role of power vacuums in great power politics, into a book manuscript.