ahansen@perseveras.com
Adresse courrier :
ULB - Campus du Solbosch
Avenue F.D. Roosevelt, 50 - CP 124
1050 Bruxelles
Adresse visiteur :
Bâtiment S, 11è étage - Bureau : S11.111
Avenue Jeanne, 44 - 1050 Bruxelles
Bio
She is a re:constitution Fellow 2026–2027, a joint initiative of the Forum Transregionale Studien and Democracy Reporting International, funded by Stiftung Mercator. In that capacity, she is hosted at CEVIPOL as a visiting researcher and is associated with the activities of the Parties, Elections, and Representation axis.
Her project, “Drawing the Line: Distinguishing Assistance, Influence, and Interference in European Elections,” examines contemporary forms of foreign involvement in electoral processes and the criteria that make it possible to distinguish assistance, influence, and interference.
She is Director and Principal Consultant at Perseveras Consulting (Australia) and Vice President for Strategy and Programs at Asociația Evoluție și Responsabilitate (Romania). She previously led development programs in Guinea, Haiti, the Middle East, and the Pacific Island countries. She has also served on election observation missions, including European Union missions in Guyana (2025) and Peru (2026).
Trained as a lawyer, and holding master’s degrees in international and European law and in communication and public relations, she began her career in Romanian politics.
CV
- re:constitution Fellow 2026–2027 (Track 2 – Practitioners), Forum Transregionale Studien / Democracy Reporting International, supported by Stiftung Mercator—visiting researcher at CEVIPOL, Parties, Elections, and Representation research axis.
- Director and Principal Consultant, Perseveras Consulting (Australia), since 2025—strategic advice, communication, and capacity building on democratic governance.
- Vice President for Strategy and Programs, Asociația Evoluție și Responsabilitate (Romania), since 2026—strategic direction and program portfolio.
- Country Director / Chief of Party for international development programs in democracy and good governance, 2016–2025—Democracy International (Guinea), International Republican Institute (Haiti), National Democratic Institute (Iraq, Pacific Islands).
- Full CV
Areas of research
• Democratic resilience and the legitimacy of institutional responses to interference
• Women’s political participation and violence against women in politics
• Democratic governance in fragile and post-conflict settings
• The geopolitics of micro-states
- Teaching
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Available for occasional contributions and seminars on international election observation, electoral integrity, foreign interference in elections, and women’s political participation.
- Research
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Current project: “Drawing the Line: Distinguishing Assistance, Influence, and Interference in European Elections” (re:constitution Fellowship 2026–2027, Track 2 – Practitioners; hosted by CEVIPOL).
Authoritarian involvement in foreign elections—disinformation, influence operations, opaque political financing, cyber activity—is now relatively well documented. The boundaries of what counts as legitimate foreign involvement, by contrast, remain far less settled when democracies themselves are the actors.
This project analyzes precisely this gray zone. Without shared definitions and safeguards governing mandates and methods, democracies may—in the name of protecting electoral integrity—edge toward practices they condemn in others. Conversely, legitimate activities such as electoral assistance and observation, institutional cooperation, public diplomacy, and civil society support can be relabeled as “interference” in order to delegitimize those who carry them out.
Previous work—applied research led or supervised:
• Violence against women in politics (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands), 2021–2022.
• Openness and transparency of election data in the Pacific Island countries, 2021–2022.
• Women’s inclusion in the post-referendum consultations between Papua New Guinea and Bougainville, 2021–2022.
• Political exclusion, public opinion, and reconciliation in Iraq, 2016–2020. - Publications
Kabuni, M. & Hansen, A. (2022). “Women’s Inclusion in the Post-Referendum Consultation Process between Papua New Guinea and Bougainville.” DPA In Brief, Department of Pacific Affairs, Australian National University. DOI: 10.25911/2FD3-A648
Hansen, A. & Socci, C. (2021). Promoting Election Integrity in the Pacific Island Countries—Open Election Data Assessment. Washington, DC: National Democratic Institute.
Hansen, A. (dir. / supervision) (2022). Violence Against Women in Politics in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands. Washington, DC: National Democratic Institute.
ORCID