Penelope Wessel holds a Dual Master Degree in International War Studies from both the University College Dublin as well as the University of Potsdam. As a researcher, she is focusing on German foreign and security policy, as well as international conflict management and military history, with a particular interest in the role of gender in security fields. Based on that, she wrote her Master’s thesis on the implementation of Germany’s feminist foreign policy in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine.