Ole, Research Assistant in the Office of the Director for the German Council for Foreign Relations, Franco-German University Best Master Thesis award

Coming from Germany, Ole Spillner has graduated in International Security. During his studies at PSIA, Ole wrote a Master’s Thesis. He was awarded with the Franco-German University Best Master Thesis award. Ole is a Research Assistant in the Office of the Director for the German Council for Foreign Relations (DGAP). 

>What did you study at PSIA?

I studied International Security with the Human Rights Concentration in the first Semester. I switched concentrations in the second semester to Intelligence Studies due to my research interest at the intersection of security and new technologies.  

What was the subject of your Master Thesis?

My Master thesis dealt with the EU approach to governance of data and in particular how the EU constructs the relationship between security and liberty in the context of its approach to governance of data. 

What was the most fascinating and/or surprising aspect of working on your Master’s thesis? 

Empirically, I was surprised how late the EU has been to the party regarding governance of data. Only under the Van der Leyen Commission it became a priority. To me that seems rather surprising considering how politicians keep on talking about the importance of data for the future of European prosperity. Furthermore, I am quite glad that the findings show that the EU tries to reconcile security and liberty in its approach to governance of data – and thus has a different approach compared to the libertarian US and the authoritarian Chinese approaches to governance of data.  

I was similarly surprised how little research exists on the EU dealing with new technologies and data. So this is really an academic field in which it is easy to find gaps in the literature that wait to be closed.   

What advice would you give to others writing a thesis? 

Writing a Master Thesis is a process, and it will take time. It's totally normal that you struggle to find a relevant research topic and the right theoretical and methodological frameworks. Don’t stress, keep on reading, and everything will eventually fall into place. The most difficult part is to find a research question and the right framework. As soon as you have this sorted out, the writing and empirical research process will be rather quick and easy. And although it sounds a bit cliché: I feel like going for a walk really helps to sort your thoughts and helps to make sense of your ideas for your thesis. Overall, I would recommend writing a thesis to everyone. Yes, sometimes it is a painful hassle, but deep-diving into a topic and fully understanding it at the end of the thesis journey is super rewarding – and of course, in a way you create new knowledge, something academia is all about! 

How did your PSIA experience help you with your current role? 

I am currently employed at the German Council for Foreign Relations (DGAP) – the leading foreign policy think tank in Germany. We analyze all kinds of foreign policy issues, publicly comment on day-to-day foreign politics and based on our research advise politicians and governments on these issues.  More concretely, I am working as researcher in the Director’s office coordinating the director's research, supporting him in the writing process and even co-authoring research papers and opinion pieces on various foreign policy issues. The German-French Dual Degree program with FU Berlin perfectly prepared me for this job and I benefited from two rather different university systems. At PSIA, I learned to be quick on my feet, get acquainted with new topics super-fast, and write less academic and more policy focused papers. This is important for my job because the director is expected to publicly comment on and advise governmental actors on all kinds of foreign policy issues that suddenly become relevant. Furthermore, an important part of my job is to develop policy recommendations. At FU Berlin, on the other hand, I focused more on classic academic skills such as planning long-term research projects, conducting empirical research and writing papers in an academic journal format. These skills really helped me with planning and conducting research projects with the director. Furthermore, it prepared me quite well to write papers that have been published in peer-reviewed journals.  

• More about the Master in International Security
• More about the German Council for Foreign Relations (DGAP)