Lukas Wahden is an Alliance Program Visiting Scholar at Columbia University’s Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, a PhD candidate in International Relations at Sciences Po’s Centre for International Studies (CERI), and an Associate Fellow with the Russia Program at George Washington University. His research examines how status-seeking, military strategy, and resource appropriation have shaped Russian approaches to spaces beyond traditional territorial sovereignty, including the polar regions, oceans, and outer space.

He holds a BA from University College London, a dual master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Sciences Po, and a master’s degree in China Studies from the Yenching Academy at Peking University. He previously worked at the European External Action Service and the Institute for Strategic Research of the École Militaire in Paris, and held visiting fellowships at the Royal Danish Defence College in Copenhagen and the Arctic University of Norway (UiT) in Tromsø. He also writes 66° North, a monthly Substack newsletter analysing Arctic security.