Born in 1984 as a child of a German father and a Spanish mother, Miguel grew up in Madrid where he attended the German School. After graduating, he moved to Freiburg (Germany) where he studied Political Science, Economic Policy and Current and Modern History. Motivated among other reasons by his bi-national background he focused on the interplay between International Relations and the EU's development.

Miguel has worked as student assistant at Freiburg University’s Department of Political Science where he was in charge of the university’s delegation to the largest UN simulation. As intern at a German research institute focusing on research into developing countries, he contributed to research projects dealing with Latin America. Both previously and subsequently, Miguel worked at the European Parliament, first as a trainee dealing with the Committee on Legal Affairs, and subsequently after graduation, he worked for Elmar Brok, MEP, rapporteur on the establishment of the European External Action Service.

His research interests include assessing the influence of the European Union as an international actor, foreign policy-making at the EU level, the promotion of regional integration and cooperation by the EU, its institutional development and inter-institutional affairs.

The EU as a region-builder in its neighbourhood and beyond. 
An analysis of the EU's promotion of regional cooperation towards the Western Balkans and Mercosur.

Supervisor: Professor Lenka Rovná (Charles University in Prague)
Co-Supervisor: Professor Wolfgang Wessels (University of Cologne)

Encouraging regional cooperation and integration beyond its borders is one of the core norms and foreign policy objectives of the European Union, be it towards its own neighbourhood or towards the wider world. 
This PhD project analyses the efforts and the effectiveness of the EU in promoting regional cooperation by comparing two cases in which the EU has tried to act as a 'region-builder'. By applying a diffusion perspective, the project allows to account not only for the EU's intentions and efforts and a diverse set of foreign policy instruments but also for the role of the EU's partners in shaping and changing its influence, a so far under-explored perspective in this area of research.

Publications and presentations at academic conferences:

Haubrich Seco, M. (2013): Tracing the impact of EU promotion of regional integration and cooperation in Mercosur and the Western Balkans, Paper presented at the Thirteenth EUSA Biennial Conference, May 9-11th 2013, Baltimore, and at the ISA Annual Convention 2013, April 3rd-6th, San Francisco.  

Alcaro, R. / Haubrich Seco, M. (eds.) (2012): Re-Thinking Western Policies in Light of the Arab Uprisings, Rome: Nuova Cultura, ISBN 978-88-6134-778-6.

Haubrich Seco, M. (2011): Decoupling Trade from Politics. The EU and region-building in the Andes, IAI Working Paper Series, 11-20, July 2011, Istituto Affari Internazionali, Rome (http://www.iai.it/pdf/DocIAI/iaiwp1120.pdf).

Haubrich Seco, M. (2011): EU promotion of regional cooperation. Theoretical and methodological concerns, Paper presented at the 7th Graduate Conference Hebrew University (Jerusalem), December 15th 2011.

Haubrich Seco, M. (2011): EU promotion of regional cooperation in the African Union – supporting symbolic regionalism or bringing about peace?, Paper presented at the UACES Student Forum 12th Annual Conference "New Frontiers in European Studies", June 30th - July 1st 2011, Guildford, UK.

Presentations:

Talk on EU foreign policy towards Mercosur at the seminar "Mercosur - Opportunity and Challenge for South America and the EU", Friedrich Naumann Foundation, October 27th 2012 (Programme)

Seminar at the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) on "Promoting regional integration: Lessons from EU-Latin America relations", Rome, September 22nd 2011.

Book reviews, conference reports and other contributions:

Haubrich Seco, M. (2013): Review of ‘Taylor et al.: The European Union and South East Europe. The Dynamics of Europeanization and Multilevel Governance, in: Journal of Contemporary European Research 9(3): 360-361.

Haubrich Seco, M. (2012): Overcoming the sui-generis argument? A look abroad for EU Studies. Review of 'Van Langenhove, Luk; Warleigh-Lack, Alex, eds. (2010): Rethinking EU Studies. The Contribution of Comparative Regionalism, Special issue of the Journal of European Integration', in: The International Spectator 47(1), pp. 161-163.

Haubrich Seco, M. (2011): Re-thinking Western Policies in Light of the Arab Uprisings. Report of the Transatlantic Security Symposium 2011, Documenti IAI 11-14, October 2011, Istituto Affari Internazionali, Rome (http://www.iai.it/pdf/DocIAI/iai1114.pdf).

Haubrich Seco, M. (2011): Review of 'Lavenex / Schimmelfennig, eds. (2010): EU External Governance. Projecting EU rules beyond Membership, Abingdon: Routledge, 2010, 158 p. - ISBN 978-0-415-56750-3', in: The International Spectator 46(3): 152-153.

German translation and editorial assistance for a book on the Lisbon Treaty by Enrique Barón Crespo (2011): Vertrag von Lissabon, Madrid: EuroEditions, ISBN 978-84-937711-8-8.

Seminar 'EU external action: examples and analyses from current practice' (together with Simon Stroß), Charles University in Prague, winter term 2012/2013.

Seminar on External Relations of the European Union (together with Marlene Gottwald), University of Cologne, winter term 2011/2012.

Summer School on Academic Skills, University of Cologne, Germany. Two weeks intensive training on writing and publishing, teaching, methodology. Directed by Prof. G. Edwards (University of Cambridge) and Dr. R. Kissack (Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals). (09/2012)

Seminar on Professional Skills,TEPSA, Brussels, Belgium. Two weeks intensive training in project management and application, relations with the media, communicating with decision-makers, working in intercultural teams. Directed by Dr. H. Ojanen (Finnish Institute of International Affairs). (10/2011)

European Consortium on Political Research (ECPR), Summer School on Methods and Techniques, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Course on Process Tracing directed by Dr. D. Beach and Dr. R. Brun Pedersen (University of Aarhus). (08/2011)