About Nikolay Pavlov

I was born in Sofia, Bulgaria where I graduated from the First English Language High School. I hold MA degrees in International Relations and Law as well as a PhD degree in Management of security and defence research. On my academic journey, I have worked for the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences’ Centre for National Security and Defence Research and as Bulgaria’s National contact person (NCP) for the Security theme under the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme for research. I have also acted as an independent evaluator and reviewer of security research projects for European institutions, having reviewed some of the major EU-funded research projects in the area of EU crisis management, conflict prevention, and peace-building. In 2020 I was awarded the Marie Skladowska-Curie fellowship, one of Europe’s most prestigious and competitive research grants. I was a Marie Curie Fellow at the research and innovation company SYNYO GmbH in Vienna, where I coordinated a Horizon 2020 research project on the role of Concept development and experimentation for EU conflict prevention and peace-building (CDE4Peace).

Before the fantasy novel ‘The White Huns of Identaria’ I have published as sole author two scholarly books:

‘The Bulgarian Issue in the Volga-Ural Region (1988–2003)’, Sofia, 2005; and

Държавната наука за сигурност и отбрана в Република България (‘Security and Defence Research in the Public Sector in the Republic of Bulgaria’, Sofia, 2017).

I have also published widely in international peer-reviewed journals such as Defence Studies, European Foreign Affairs Review, etc. My main research interests and publications are in the fields of geopolitics and regional studies, security research management, crisis management, disaster risk management, and the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).

I was co-founder of the Bulgarian Human Rights Association which was the first human rights organization to fight against anti-Bulgarian racism and discrimination in Bulgaria.

My fists novel, The White Huns of Identaria, draws on traditional Gothic fantasy to develop the original fantasy world of Identaria and to experiment radical Western concepts.