Julius Strunk is a PhD candidate in the Transnational Governance program jointly offered by the Scuola Normale Superiore (SNS) and the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies. His research focuses on elite management in authoritarian states, with a primary case study on Jordan. His project aims to examine how elite structures evolve under conditions of regime stability. His wider academic interests encompass authoritarian politics, democratization, and political violence.

He holds a BA in Middle Eastern Studies from Philipps-University Marburg and an MA in Peace and Conflict Studies jointly conferred by Goethe University Frankfurt and TU Darmstadt. During his MA studies, he worked as a student research assistant at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF).