Alena Vysotskaya Guedes Vieira is a Post-Doctoral Researcher (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Tecnology) and a Professor of International Relations at the University of Minho. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Erlangen-Nuernberg. In 2007, she was awarded a two-year research grant by Compagnia di San Paolo, VolkswagenStiftung, and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond within the EFSPS project. She was also awarded a EU-Russia Research Grant from the Chair InBev Baillet Latour in 2004-2005. She is an author of ‘EU-Osterweiterung, Russland und Belarus’ (Ibidem-Verlag 2008), book chapters (Sturm, R. and Pehle, H. (ed.) Die neue Europäische Union: Die Osterweiterung und ihre Folgen, Barbara Budrich 2007) several articles and working papers (CFSP Forum, Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Instituto Estudos Estratégicos e Internacionais), including those related to the performance of the Portuguese Presidency 2007 (‘The European Union-Cape Verde special partnership: the role of Portugal’ Portuguese Journal of Internaltional Affairs (with Laura C. Ferreira-Pereira)). In 2008, she prepared a Briefing Paper on European Neighbourhood Partnership Instrument implementation for the European Parliament (together with Giselle Bosse).