Academic Team
Tobias Burgers
Faculty member in Social Studies
Fields of Interest: International Relations, Geopolitics and Geoeconomics, Security Studies, Emerging Technologies, Risk Governance, Science and Technology Studies
Education:
- Diploma, Otto Suhr Institute, Free Univeristy Berlin, Germany – 2012
- Doctorare, Otto Suhr Institute, Free University Berlin, Berlin, Germany – 2019
Bio:
Dr. Tobias Burgers is a faculty member in Social Studies, and co-convenor of the new minors in Business, Policy and Society (BPS), as well Science and Technology Studies (STS). His research focuses on understanding 21st-century risks in the Asia-Pacific, with a specific focus on the interaction between technology, politics and economics and how these shape contemporary risk environments. His work examines how technological change and geopolitical competition create uncertainty, vulnerability, and systemic risk and possible conflict across the region. A central approach in his research is to analyze how these dynamics emerge, evolve and can be governed and managed, and how states and societies in the Asian Pacific respond to these risk dynamics. His research has been published in various academic journals, as think tank reports, and in popular media outlets.
He received his doctorate in political science from the Otto Suhr Institute at the Free University of Berlin. During his doctoral studies, Dr. Burgers was a Taiwan Fellow, Taiwan Center for Security Studies, at the National Chengchi University and a Canon Foundation Fellow at the Cyber Civilization Research Center at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan and also worked as political analyst, researcher and consultant, focusing on risk management, conflict resolution, political communication and strategic forecasting.
As part of these fellowships, he research expanded his research to Asia-Pacific more broadly, focusing on how regional political economy, technological development, and strategic geopoltical competition interact to shape risk perceptions and governance challenges. This led to his appointment as an Assistant Professor at the Cyber Civilization Research Center, Keio University where he taught on risk, technological governance, and contemporary challenges in the Asia-Pacific and researched on the societal impact of cyber conflict as one dimension of new nodes of international conflict and security.
