Former Fellow

Olesia Zvezdova, Ph.D.

Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University (Mykolaiv, Ukraine)

Research project title: Russian psychological warfare against Ukraine

Research Abstract:
The events, currently taking place in the world, indicate that population of Europe continent is on a verge of transformations in the field of international security, including psychological security as well. During only previous decade we were witnesses of wide Russian information warfare against Ukraine, which has a destructive and destabilizing effect on societies in general and on the psyche of everyone in particular.

Throughout the Russian-Ukrainian hybrid war (since 2014), Russian Federation actively continues to use different psychological mechanisms of influence on the population of Ukraine, European Union and even its own people, with only difference that one of these influences aimed at discrediting of authorities in a country, undermining an authority of the military structures (Ukraine), the others – at manipulation of collective consciousness and outright chantage (EU countries) and – intimidation and formation in minds of the population figure of an ancient and irreconcilable enemy (Russia). Moreover, research project considers the problematic of separatism and psychological influence of patron-state on population of non-recognized territory. Research could be interesting for different specialists, because it is based on interdisciplinary (at least international relations and psychology) principles.

  • Biografische Angaben

    Olesia Zvezdova is a guest researcher at Goethe University Frankfurt. She holds two Master`s Diploma in International relations (2010), in Psychology (2023) and PhD in Political Science (specification - political problems of international systems and global development). She has been lecturing at Black Sea National University (Ukraine) for six years and predominantly was engaged in lecturing such courses as "Geopolitics" and "Russian Foreign Policy". In 2022 she was forced to move to Germany because of war.
  • Publikationen

    Zvezdova, O. (2020). Tools for promoting European values in the context of civil servants training. Problems and process of reforming public administration education in Ukraine and EU countries. Wloclawek, Poland. December 2-13. Voronkova, V., Zvezdova, O. (2022). Theoretical and practical aspects of modern politics: challenges and reformatting of the global world. Cuestiones Políticas, 40 (75). https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.4075.32 Zvezdova, O. (2023). Psychological warfare as a hybrid threat to the modern system of international security. Acta de Historia & Politica: Saeculum XXI, 5. https://doi.org/10.26693/ahpsxxi2023.05.063 Zvezdova, O. (2023). “Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic”: Genesis of Issue and Influence on the International Relations. Acta De Historia & Politica: Saeculum XXI, 2. https://doi.org/10.26693/ahpsxxi2023.si.005

News from the research center

News
04.12.2025

The crisis of democratic theory from a sociological perspective

Sociologist Jenny Brichzin's lecture "Crisis of Democratic Theory? A sociological intervention" opened our lecture series "At the crossroads? On the future of democratic theory". The sociologist criticized the fact that social coexistence has so far been insufficiently addressed in democratic theory. A follow-up report

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Publication
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Handbook of Leadership. Applied Business Psychology for Managers

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News
20.11.2025

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Review of the 58th "Römerberggespräche". The topic of compulsory military service and the question of what a democratic state is allowed to demand of its citizens were at the center of the 58th "Römerberggespräche" "Conditionally ready for action? Military service and the duty to serve the state", which took place on November 15 in cooperation with the Research Centre Normative Orders in the Chagallsaal at Schauspiel Frankfurt.

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News
13.11.2025

Goethe Lecture Offenbach on ableist discrimination

Regina Schidel hat im Rahmen der Goethe Lectures Offenbach eine Kritik ableistischer Diskriminierung präsentiert. In ihrem Vortrag „Ich kann, also bin ich?“ diskutierte sie praktische Ausprägungen und philosophische Herkünfte von Ableismus.

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Event
10.02.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

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Lecture, Lecture Series

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Event
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Vortrag von Christine Abbt (Universität St. Gallen) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung "Am Scheidepunkt? Zur Krise der Demokratie" im Wintersemester 2025/2026

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Event
29.01.2026 | Frankfurt

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Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von David Owen (Universtiy of Southampton) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung "Am Scheidepunkt? Zur Krise der Demokratie" im Wintersemester 2025/2026

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Event
14.01.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

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Vortrag von Christine Hentschel (Universität Hamburg) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung "Am Scheidepunkt? Zur Krise der Demokratie" im Wintersemester 2025/2026

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Event
10.12.2025 | Frankfurt am Main

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Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Jonathan White (LSE) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung "Am Scheidepunkt? Zur Krise der Demokratie" im Wintersemester 2025/2026

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