Mario Mandlik M.A.

Thursday 11:00 to 12:00

during the lecture period or by appointment

Mario Mandlik is an assistant professor and doctoral candidate at the Chair of International Politics and Transatlantic Relations at the University of Regensburg.

After his voluntary military service, he studied political science, history and rhetoric at the University of Regensburg in the Bachelor's programme and then democracy studies in the Master's programme. in 2023, he completed his studies, specialising in international politics, with a thesis on Australia's China policy.

This was followed by a professional career as a research assistant and member of the teaching staff at the Chair of Governance in Multilevel Systems at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Freiburg.

Mario Mandlik has been a doctoral student at the University of Regensburg since 2025 and is researching his dissertation project with the working title "Alliance Building in the Indo-Pacific". In it, he is analysing the security policy reasons, forms and consequences of alliance-building processes in the Indo-Pacific region on the basis of theory.

In addition to his dissertation topics, his research focuses on geopolitics, defence and military policy.

Mario Mandlik's dissertation project is funded by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V. (KAS) and he has been a member of the international KAS doctoral programme "Security and Development in the 21st Century" since 2025. He is also a member of the doctoral programme of the Faculties of Philosophy at the University of Regensburg (PUR)."

He is also a reserve officer in the German Armed Forces and is involved in the Regensburg University Group for Foreign and Security Policy in the Federal Association for Security Policy at Universities (BSH).

Main research interests:

• Alliance policy in the Indo-Pacific
• Security and defence policy
• Geopolitics
• Military
• Structural neorealism, neorealist alliance theory

Working title of dissertation: "Alliance building in the Indo-Pacific"

Since the end of the Cold War, the Indo-Pacific region of the world has been subject to profound and revolutionary developments. The enormous economic, political and military rise of the People's Republic of China has significantly changed the existing regional and global balance of power. China has risen to become the dominant power in the region and is increasingly asserting its own interests in international politics, for example with the artificial creation and militarisation of islands in the South China Sea since 2015. This rise in China's power has triggered a series of alliance-building processes in the Indo-Pacific region that have the potential to change the region in the long term. The dissertation project will conduct theory-based research into the reasons, contexts and consequences of these alliance-building processes.

• "(Geo-)Political Dynamics in the Indo-Pacific" - Proseminar SoSe 2024 - University of Freiburg
• "Introduction to European Integration" - Proseminar SoSe 2024 - University of Freiburg
• "Sovereign Europe? The Foreign, Security and Defence Policy of the EU" - Proseminar WiSe 2024/25
• "Introduction to political science" - Proseminar winter semester 2024/25 - University of Freiburg
• "Introduction to International Politics" - basic course winter semester 2025/26 - University of Regensburg

Lectures & Publications:

• "The end of Pax Americana? - The changing world order" - Lecture 26.07.2025 - Academy for Civic Education Tutzing