Speakers

Margarita Akhvlediani is an Editor-in-chief of JAMnews and Programmes Director at Go Group Media for the last 10 years. Previously, she served as the Caucasus Programme Director at the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). For years, she has taught conflict reporting, news reporting and media management to local and international students. Her publications include a chapter on the information war between Georgian and Russian media during the August 2008 war, published in London in 2009. Margarita Akhvlediani has an MA in Political Philosophy, from the University of York, and she is an alumnus of two international programmes: John S.Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University and the Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability programme at the Columbia University.

Teona Akubardia is an invited lecturer at the University of Georgia in International Relations. She was a deputy secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia from 2014 to 2018. Ms Akubardia is the founder of the Civil Council on Defence and Security. She has worked for civil society organizations of Georgia in the Defense and Security field for more than 10 years. In 2016 she gained her degree in Master of Arts in International Security and Strategy at King’s College London and attended the postgraduate level a year course in Royall College of Defense Studies in London.

 

Nino Antadze oversees UNDP’s diverse portfolio in Georgia in the area of environment protection, climate change, disaster risk reduction, energy efficiency and renewable energy. Having background in Biology, she has over 20 years of professional experience in disaster risk management, preparedness and response, contingency planning, disaster risk assessment and reduction issues; Over 8 years of experience in wide range of environmental protection – biodiversity conservation, hazardous chemical management, reforestation, climate change adaptation and mitigation and renewable energy/energy efficiency issues. She specializes in climate change issues and provides policy advice to meet the country’s international obligations, including but not limited to the UNFCCC and other UN Conventions and Paris Agreement.

 

Hamidreza Azizi is an Assistant Professor at Regional Studies Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran. He is also an adjunct lecturer at the Department of Regional Studies, University of Tehran and a member of the scientific board of Iran and Eurasia Studies Institute (IRAS). Azizi obtained his PhD in Central Asia and the Caucasus Studies from the University of Tehran and has many publications both in Persian and English, including two books. His research interests include: security and geopolitical issues in Central Asia and the Caucasus, Iran’s foreign policy and Iran-Russia relations.

 

Giorgi Badridze is Senior Fellow at Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (Rondeli Foundation) since 2013. Ambassador Badridze has been a career diplomat since 1992. He has held various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia including the Head of Western European Department (1996-1998) and Director General at the Directorate for the Americas (2004-2006). He has served as the Minister Plenipotentiary and Deputy Head of Mission at the Georgian Embassies to the Republic of Turkey (1999-2002) and the United Kingdom (2007-2009). In 2009-2013 Mr. Badridze served as the Ambassador of Georgia to the United Kingdom and Ireland. Mr. Badridze is an assistant professor at Caucasus University and a visiting lecturer at Tbilisi State University, where he teaches international relations. Giorgi Badridze studied history at Tbilisi State University and international relations at the Central European University (Prague and Budapest). He has publications in the field of international politics and security, history and culture in the US, UK, Canada, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Poland and Georgia.

Dominik K. Cagara is a co-founder of award-winning OC Media, a digital platform focused on social issues in North and South Caucasus. He works with a vast network of correspondents and partners to produce highly contextualized in-depth reports and set the agenda for regional debate. He has background in peace and conflict studies.

 

 

 

Denis Cenusa is a political scientist from Moldova, who is Research Assistant at Institut für Politikwissenschaft and PhD candidate at Justus-Liebig-Universität, Germany.  He is affiliated to the Independent Economic Think-tank “Expert-Grup” from Moldova, and he is a weekly contributor at the “Info-Prim” Moldovan News Agency. Denis authored and co-authored numerous analytical articles, papers, and reports. The latest books co-edited by Denis are the book 1st and 2nd editions of “Deepening EU-Moldova relations: What, Why and How?” and “Struggle for Good Governance in Eastern Europe”, published between 2016-2018, under the coordination of Michael Emerson, Senior Research Fellow at CEPS Brussels.

 

Lasha Darsalia is Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Georgia since October 2018. His responsibilities include to deal with the issues concerning the Russian-Georgian conflict, as well as neighboring countries and International Organizations. Mr. Darsalia is chief negotiator from Georgia to the Russian Federation in the Geneva International Discussions (GID). Prior to his assignment Lasha Darsalia was First Deputy Minister at the State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civic Equity. His main responsibilities included to work on the issues of the engagement policy with the communities on the Russian Occupied territories.

He graduated from the Tbilisi State University Masters and Bachelor’s degrees in International Relations. In 2007 He got his Master’s degree in The Theory of International Relations from the University of Essex (UK) as the British Government Chevening Fellowship Scholar. Parallel to this he got extensive training through various programs. Among them, he attended the “The New Issues in Security Course – 2016” at the Geneva Center for Security Policy.

Rayhan Demytrie is a correspondent with BBC News with more than 15 years of experience reporting from the South Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia and the UK. She is also a documentary film maker. Georgia’s Rave Revolution, a BBC short documentary about the nightclub raid protests of 2018 was viewed on Facebook more than 1 million times. Rayhan has reported extensively on events in the region, from Armenia’s Velvet Revolution in 2018, to conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and Kyrgyzstan. She has investigated drug trafficking across Central Asia, and prison torture in Kazakhstan.

 

Alexandra Dienes (née Vasileva) is Research Associate at the FES Regional Office for Cooperation and Peace in Europe (ROCPE) in Vienna. At ROCPE she focuses on economic aspects of regional security and cooperation and coordinates the network of young experts FLEET. Alexandra got her MA in Political Science from the Freie University Berlin in 2012 and her PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 2017. Before joining FES in 2017, she taught international relations and political economy at the University of Amsterdam and interned for German political foundations in Georgia and China, the European Parliament in Brussels and the German Development Agency GIZ. She also did a documentary film on barriers to regional trade in Central Asia.

Mr. Richard Giragosian is the Founding Director of the Regional Studies Center (RSC), an independent “think tank” located in Yerevan, Armenia and serves as both a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe’s Natolin Campus and Senior Expert at Yerevan State University’s Centre for European Studies (CES), and is also a contributing analyst for al Jazeera and Oxford Analytica, a UK-based global analysis and advisory firm.  Giragosian also represents the Republic of Armenia as a Member and National Expert of the Council of Europe’s European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in Strasbourg.  Giragosian was a guest lecturer for the U.S. Army Special Forces and served as a Professional Staff Member of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the U.S. Congress.

 

Dr. Gavin Helf is currently a Senior Expert on Central Asia for the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, DC.  Previously he worked as a Senior Democracy and Governance Advisor in the USAID Asia and Middle East Bureaus, covering democracy promotion and countering violent extremism portfolios.  From 2007 through 2009 he worked at USAID/Iraq, managing and helping design much of the democracy and governance portfolio there during “the surge.”  He studied, lived and worked in the USSR and its successor states from 1984 through 2007.  From 2005-2007 he was a democracy and governance advisor at USAID/Armenia.  From 2003-2005 he worked as a consultant on Central Asia.  From 2000-2002 he was Director of Grant Programs for the Eurasia Foundation.  From 1997-2000 he was Central Asia Regional Director for the International Research & Exchanges Board based in Almaty.

Gavin graduated with a BA, MA and Ph.D. in political science from UC Berkeley.  He has taught Russian and Soviet foreign policy and comparative politics at Notre Dame, Cornell and Moscow’s International University and guest lectured at the National War College, The U.S. Military Academy, The Foreign Service Institute, among others.  He is an occasional adjunct professor of security studies at The George Washington University.

Felix Hett has been the director of the FES South Caucasus Office since January 2017. He has been with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung since 2009, working first in the Moscow Office, and then – since 2011 – as desk officer for Belarus, Russia and Ukraine in the Berlin Head Office. Felix Hett studied Politics, Business and Economics in Leipzig, Vilnius and Minsk.

 

 

 

 

Ali Akbar Jokar is a Senior expert in Institute for Political and International Studies, IPIS (affiliated to MFA of I.R. of Iran).

In 2004-2007 he was a Deputy head of Mission in Armenia. Since 2008 he was a Director of 1st department of North and East of Europe in the Ministry of Foreign affairs of Islamic Republic of Iran. In 2014-2017 he as a Charge d’affaires.ep of I.R.of Iran to Czech Republic and in 2017-2019  served as an Ambassador of I.R. of Iran to Czech Republic.

 

 

 

 

George Khelashvili serves as an adviser to the Chairman of Parliament of Georgia since March 2017. Previously he worked twice for Georgian Foreign Ministry. At the end of the 1990s, he was a policy analyst at the Foreign Ministry’s Center for Foreign Policy Research and Analysis. Between 2013 and 2017 he worked as deputy director of the Ministry’s Political Department, and then deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of Georgia to the United States. In between, George Khelashvili was Assistant Professor of International Relations and Research Director of the Center for Social Sciences at Tbilisi State University. He completed his M.Phil. degree and then a doctoral thesis on U.S. policy toward Georgia at the University of Oxford.

 

Toivo Klaar is currently EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia. He previously served as Head of the Central Asia Division at the European External Action Service / EEAS (2014-2017) and Head of the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia / EUMM (2013-2014). Born in 1968, he is a senior diplomat with extensive experience both in the EEAS and in the Estonian diplomatic service. In particular, he served as Head of Division for Human Resources Policy and Coordination in the EEAS (2012-2013). Prior to this, he was Head of Division for Resources and Planning in the EEAS (2011- 2012) and Head of Unit for Reform and Staff Resources of DG Relex of the European Commission (2010-2011), which was responsible for the management of the creation of the EEAS. Prior to joining DG Relex, he served as the first head of the European Commission Representation in Estonia from 2005 to 2010. Before this, he held various positions in the Estonian civil service, including Foreign Policy Advisor to President Lennart Meri (1999-2001), Director General for Political Affairs and Director General for EU Affairs in the Foreign Ministry (1998) and Advisor to the Minister of Defence (2003-2005).

Bogdan Klich has been Senator in the Polish Parliament since 2011 and is currently minority leader. Before entering the Senate, he was Minister of National Defense (2007–2011) and Member of the European Parliament (2004–2007) where he chaired the Delegation for Relations with Belarus. In the years 2001–2004, he was member of the Sejm (lower house of the Polish parliament). As the Deputy Minister of National Defense (1999–2000) he was responsible for Poland’s cooperation with NATO. He holds MD and MA in History of Art from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He is lecturer at the Department of European Studies at the Jagiellonian University. Senator Klich authored numerous publications on foreign policy and international security. In 2001 he founded the Institute for Strategic Studies think tank in Kraków. In the late 1970’s and 1980’s he was active in the democratic opposition movement. Currently, he is a member of regional and central authorities of the Civic Platform political party.

Dr. Reinhard Krumm, born in Hamburg, Germany, got his MA in Russian History from the University of Hamburg in 1989, and his PhD from Regensburg University, Germany in 2003, where he is a lecturer on Russian History since 2008. He holds an honoree professorship from the department of Political Science at Moscow State University. From 1991 to 1998 he worked as a journalist in the former Soviet Union, being the Moscow correspondent of Der Spiegel magazine from 1996 to 1998. He joined the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in 2002, serving as the Head of the Regional Central Asian office in Tashkent/Uzbekistan from 2003 to 2007, as the Head of the Russian office in Moscow from 2007 to 2012 and from 2012 to 2016 as the Head of the Department of Central and Eastern Europe in Berlin. Currently he is heading the newly established FES Regional Office for Cooperation and Peace in Europe, based in Vienna.

Joshua Kucera is the Turkey/Caucasus editor at EurasiaNet and the author of The Bug Pit, a blog about security issues in the Caucasus and Central Asia. His articles about the region have also appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, Jane’s Defence Weekly, The Guardian, and Foreign Policy. He has an M.A. in Regional Studies: Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia from Harvard University. He is based in Istanbul.

 

 

 

Joanna Levison is Director of Media and Public Affairs at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), with over 20 years of experience in international media relations and democracy promotion. Based in the company’s headquarters in Prague, she is responsible for media promotion, public outreach, fellowship programs, and journalists’ advocacy, overseeing operations both in the company’s Prague and Washington, D.C. offices. Before joining RFE/RL in 2009, Levison worked as a foreign policy officer for Iraq and the Middle East in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. Department of State. She previously worked for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, managing programs in the former Soviet Union, and consulted for the International Republican Institute. She has an M.A. in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and a B.A. from Swarthmore College.

Tod Lindberg is a Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute specializing in national security issues and the role of U.S. leadership. He is the author most recently of The Heroic Heart: Greatness Ancient and Modern (Encounter Books, 2015). From 1999 until 2013, he was editor of Policy Review. He has written for scholarly and popular publications from Telos and the Review of Metaphysics to Foreign Affairs and Commentary to the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. He is adjunct associate professor at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, where he teaches a graduate seminar on ethics. He is co-chair (with Raymond Brown) of the ABA’s Atrocity Prevention and Response Project and a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience.

 

Ekaterine Metreveli is the President of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (Rondeli Foundation) since 2016. Prior to that, she was a Senior Research Fellow (2002 -2006), the Director of the Centre for Human Security (2006-2015) and Acting Executive Director since July 2015. Her professional expertise lies in the field of governance and ethnic relations. She has been leading GFSIS’ multi component development initiatives since 2002 in the areas of good governance, public policy and ethnic minority relations. Dr. Metreveli started her career in 1996 working at the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia at the Defense Attaché Office (1996-1998) and later on, at Public Diplomacy Section (1999-2000). In 2000-2001, she was the Information Analyst at the Center for International Studies at University of Pittsburgh, US. Dr. Metreveli worked at the National Institute of Justice as a Consultant (2001-2002).  In 2002-2004, Dr. Metreveli was the CEP fellow at Tbilisi State University. Mrs. Metreveli holds a Doctor of Science Degree from Tbilisi State University in Art History (1996) and a Master of Public Policy and Management (MPPM) with the specialization in International Security from the School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) at the University of Pittsburgh, where she was the Muskie Fellow in 2000-2001.

Natalia Mirimanova is a conflict resolution scholar-practitioner and has over twenty years of mediation, research, peacebuilding project design and management and advocacy experience in Russia, South Caucasus, Central Asia, Moldova, Ukraine, Western Balkans, Eastern Europe and Cyprus. Natalia received her Ph.D. from the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, USA. Natalia served as a consultant for various international, national and local organizations, including UN mission in Cyprus and Tajikistan, UNDP Eurasia regional hub, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and Conflict Prevention Centre, EU, Aga Khan Foundation, SIPRI, Centre for Humanitarian dialogue and others. Natalia carried out numerous research projects, such as on the prospects for trade regulation across contested boundaries and ‘peace dividend’ of re-opening railways in the South Caucasus, assessed political economy of the private sector from the war zone in Eastern Ukraine, pursued policy research on the role of the European Union in building peace in the Eastern and Southern Neighborhood. She is the founder and director of the Eurasia Peace Initiative.

Dr. Khatuna Mshvidobadze is an Adjunct Professor of Cybersecurity at Utica College. She is also a Principal at Cyberlight Global Associates, LLC, and a Senior Fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (GFSIS). Her Presentations on “Russian Information Warfare Threats” have been made at FBI Headquarters and field offices, US Department of Homeland Security, US Department of Justice, Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Defense Intelligence Agency, as well as at various American and European private companies, think tanks, institutions and conferences.

Dr Mshvidobadze has been Deputy Director of the Information Center on NATO and Adviser to the Office of the Minister of Defense of Georgia. An expert on cybersecurity and geopolitics, her articles have appeared in Georgian and in English, including in Defense News, Jane’s Defense Weekly, US News & World Report, Jane’s Foreign Report, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and more. She is also the author of numerous “Expert Opinion” papers, reports and training courses on cyber issues. In 2015, she published a monograph, “Georgia Cyber Barometer Report,” under the auspices of the UK National Crime Agency. She presented “Cyber-Counterintelligence: Deception, Distortion, Dishonesty” at the 2018 RSA Conference. She holds a B.A. in English and Western Literature from Tbilisi State University, an M.B.A. from the Caucasus School of Business, an M.S. in Cyber Forensics and Intelligence from Utica College and a Ph.D. from Georgian Technical University. In the autumn of 2011, she was a Rumsfeld Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies.

Ghia Nodia is the professor of politics and the director of the International School of Caucasus Studies at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, Georgia. Since 1992, he is also the founder and chairman of the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development (CIPDD), an independent public policy think tank in Tbilisi. During 2008, he briefly served as the minister for education and science of Georgia. He has published extensively on democratization, state-building, security, and conflicts in Georgia and the Caucasus, as well as on theories of nationalism and democratic transition. Apart from his academic work, he has been involved in pro-democracy advocacy efforts in Georgia and internationally. He is also a frequent commentator on ongoing political events in Georgian and international media. He has served on the first Steering Committee of the World Movement for Democracy.

René Nyberg was raised in a bi-lingual environment in Helsinki. In addition to Swedish and Finnish, he learned German at an early age. He attended the specialized Deutsche Schule, where he completed both his Finnish matriculation exams and the German Reifeprüfung in 1965. Upon graduation from the University of Helsinki with a master’s degree in political science, he took a post with Finland’s Ministry of Education. In autumn 1971, he moved on to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He devoted most of the 1970s to mastering Russian and working with the Soviet Union. His formal Russian language studies included intensive summer courses in Leningrad in 1971 and 1972, as well as daily contact with Russian in his work at the Finnish embassy in Moscow (1973–1975) and at the Finnish Consulate General in Leningrad (1976–1977). He served as the assistant secretary for the Finnish-Soviet Economic Commission (1977–1979). Upon returning to the foreign ministry’s political department, he got involved in Nordic Security Policy and published the book “Finland and Nordic Security” in 1984, which he finalized during a sabbatical at Cornel University. As head of the foreign ministry’s security policy department, he launched an initiative to abolish the sovereignty restrictions of Finland’s 1947 Paris Peace Treaty with the Soviet Union.

In autumn 1990 Finland unilaterally declared the restrictions concerning the Finnish armed forces as null and void. Nyberg served as Finland’s ambassador in Vienna, head of Finland’s CSCE delegation (1992–1995), ambassador in Moscow (2000–2004) and ambassador in Berlin (2004–2008). He left diplomatic service in 2008 after he was invited to lead a newly formed organization for promoting the interests of Finnish industry in Russia, the East Office of Finnish Industries. He has served as East Office CEO 2008 -13. Nyberg is married and has three daughters and three grandchildren. He holds the rank of Major (reserve) in the Finnish Army, and has been granted the Cross of Liberty, 1st class.

Donnacha Ó Beacháin is Associate Professor of Politics at the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University. During the last two decades, Professor Ó Beacháin has conducted research in all fifteen former USSR republics. He was lead researcher in the €3.6million EU-funded FP7/Marie Curie project on Post-Soviet Tensions (2013-2017) and is Principal Investigator of the €3.8 million Horizon2020 project devoted to the Caspian region (2015-2019). Dr Ó Beacháin has published books on the post-Soviet colour revolutions, life in Eastern Europe after EU membership, political communications, Anglo-Irish relations and the Northern Ireland conflict. His most recent book is from Partition to Brexit: The Irish Government and Northern Ireland (Manchester University Press, 2018).

As Crisis Group’s Program Director for Europe and Central Asia, Olga Oliker leads the organisation’s research, analysis, policy prescription and advocacy in and about Russia, Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Oliker’s own research interests centre on the foreign and security policies of Russia, Ukraine, and the Central Asian and Caucasian successor states to the Soviet Union, domestic politics in these countries, U.S. policy towards the region, and nuclear weapon strategy and arms control.

Prior to joining Crisis Group, Oliker directed the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and held various research and management roles at the RAND Corporation, including as Director of the Center for Russia and Eurasia. Early in her career, she served at the U.S. Department of Defense. Oliker holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.P.P. from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, and a B.A. from Emory University.

Oliker is the author of numerous articles, monographs, and reports, with recent publications in Foreign Affairs, Survival, and other journals. She has also published commentary in print and online with The New York Times, The Hill, The Chicago Tribune, War on the Rocks, CNN, U.S. News and World Report, and The National Interest, among others.

Dr. Róbert Ondrejcsák, Ph.D. is the State Secretary of Defence of the Slovak Republic since 2016. It is the second time and he has been serving in this position, his first term was in 2010-2012. In his position today, he led a team that prepared a new Defence Strategy, expertly mentored accession to the EU´s PESCO, and was a strong proponent of Slovakia’s participation in NATO´s Enhanced Forward Presence in the Baltics. In 2016, he founded a non-governmental organization Stratpol. He was the Director of the Centre for European and North Atlantic Affairs (2007-2010 and later 2012-2016). In 2005-2007, he served as a Deputy Head of Mission at the Slovak Embassy in Hungary. In 2004-2005, he reformed and led the expert think-tank Institute of Security and Defence Studies at the Ministry of Defence. In 2003, he served as an Adviser to the Vice-Chairman for Foreign and Security Policy at the National Council of Slovak Republic after serving as an analyst at the NATO department of the Ministry of Defence. He is the author and editor of numerous scientific books and other publications in the field of security and defence policy and international relations, published in Slovakia and abroad. He speaks English, French, Russian, and Hungarian.

Varvara Pakhomenko has been working in armed conflict zones since 2006, focusing on conflict analysis and resolution, rule of law and development. She is currently Geneva Call’s Head of Mission in Ukraine, engaging armed actors in dialogue to increase their respect to international humanitarian law and protect civilians. 2016-2017 she worked in the non-governmental controlled territories of Donbass in her capacity of early recovery Adviser to UNDP Ukraine. In 2011-2016 she worked as an Analyst on Europe and Central Asia for the International Crisis Group. In 2006-2009, she worked for Demos Center focusing on conflict in Chechnya, before moving to the Stichting Justice Initiative in 2009-2011, where she covered South Ossetian conflict in Georgia.

 

Tamar Pataraia is a board member of the Institute for Democracy and Euro-Atlantic Studies (IDEAS). She is an author of the various academic articles, research papers and policy reports. Her areas of interests are Georgia’s democratic transition, foreign and security policy, and some of Georgia’s main challenges to good governance. She also worked as a consultant /evaluator within the framework of international programmes. Ms. Pataraia has been lecturer and research fellow at the Tbilisi State University. Tamara Pataraia is a member of the following professional bodies: Editorial Board Member of the Quarterly Journal CONNECTIONS, Partnership for Peace Consortium of Defence Academies and Security Studies Instituties (since 2012). She is one of the founders of Georgian Political Scientists’ Association (2012), and Civil Council on Defence and Security (2005).  Tamara holds PHD degree in physics and mathematics from Tbilisi State University

 

Dr. Benyamin Poghosyan is Vice President for Research – Head of the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense Research University in Armenia holding this position since August 2016 and Executive Director of Political Science Association of Armenia since 2011.  In 2013 he was a Research Fellow at the US National Defense University. His primary research areas are geopolitics of the South Caucasus, US – Russian relations and their implications for the region. He joined Institute for National Strategic Studies (predecessor of NDRU) in March 2009 as a Research Fellow and was appointed as INSS Deputy Director for research in November 2010. Before this, he was Foreign Policy Adviser of the Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia. Dr. Poghosyan has also served as a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences, and was an adjunct professor at Yerevan State University and in the European Regional Educational Academy. He is the author of more than 70 Academic papers in different leading Armenian and international journals. Dr. Poghosyan is a graduate from the US State Department Study of the US Institutes for Scholars Program on US National Security Policy Making. He holds a PhD in History and is a graduate from the Tavitian Certificate Program on International Relations at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Sophia Pugsley has been the Caucasus Regional Manager for International Alert since 2016 where the latest publication on Nagorny Karabakh is Envisioning Peace (2018). She is also project manager for the EU-funded EPNK consortium working on peacebuilding in the Nagorny Karabakh context. She has spent much of the past 20 years working in and on the post-Soviet world, with a particular expertise in humanitarian operations (with the ICRC), conflict analysis, human rights, and EU foreign policy in the Eastern neighbourhood (with ECFR). She has lived for extended periods of time in the North Caucasus, South Ossetia, Nagorny Karabakh, Ukraine and Belarus. She holds degrees from the University of Sheffield and the College of Europe, Natolin.

 

Frantisek Ružička is the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic. In 2017-2018, he was the Chef de Cabinet to the President of the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly. Ambassador Ružička was the Permanent Representative of Slovakia to the UN from 2012 to 2017. From October 2004, he was the Director General of the European Affairs Section at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bratislava, except for the periods 2011-2012 when he was in charge of the UN Department, and 2005-2010 when he served as Ambassador to Poland. Previously, he held various high positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served in the embassies in Washington D.C. and Prague. He represented Slovakia at many high-level EU summits including negotiations of the Lisbon Treaty and took part in regular talks of the Bretton-Woods institutions. He graduated from Charles University in Prague in 1991, and from the Moscow Institute for International Relations in 1989. He has authored several publications on Slovak foreign policy, EU integration and the book “European Diplomacy” (2012).

Theresa Sabonis-Helf is a Professor of National Security Strategy at the National War College in Washington DC, where she has taught since 2001.  She is also an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University in the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She has lived and worked in seven countries of the Former USSR, has assisted two nations with the development of their first National Security Strategies, and has co-edited two volumes on Central Asia’s political and economic transition.  She has also published and lectured extensively on climate change policies, post-Soviet energy and environmental issues, regional trade and transit, and the politics of electricity.

 

Sven Sakkov Is the director of the International Centre for Defence and Security, a foreign affairs and defence think tank based in Tallinn, Estonia. Besides conducting wide-ranging research ICDS is also organising Lennart Meri Conference, Annual Baltic Conference on Defence (ABCD), publishing monthly “Diplomaatia” magazine and running Estonian National Defence Course.

Before joining ICDS Sven Sakkov served for 2 years as the director of NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (NATO CCDCOOE), an international knowledge hub specialising in research, training and exercises in the areas of technology, strategy, operations and law.Between 2008 and 2015 Sakkov served as an undersecretary for defence policy (policy director) of the Ministry of Defence of Estonia. During his tenure as a policy director Sven Sakkov was responsible for policy planning, threat assessments, NATO and EU policy, international cooperation and arms control. He was an Estonian representative to the NATO’s Senior Officials’ Group and High Level Group.

Previously he had served at the Estonian Embassy in Washington and Estonian Mission to NATO, as national security and defence advisor to the President of Estonia and as the director of Policy Planning of MOD. Sven Sakkov has studied at the Royal College of Defence Studies (course of 2011-12), University of Cambridge (M.Phil. in international relations) and University of Tartu (B.A. cum laude in history). He is a member of NATO CCDCOE Advisory Board.

Sonja Schirmbeck holds a PhD in Political Science from the University Frankfurt/Main, Germany. She joined the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in 2012, and started working for FES Vietnam in 2013, where she became the regional coordinator for FES
in Asia for climate change and energy policies. Since 2018, Sonja Schirmbeck works as a country officer for South Caucasus an Central Asia, as well as as coordinator for climate change and energy policies in Central and Eastern Europe at the FES’ headquarters in Berlin.”

 

 

Osman Sert is Research Director at Ankara Institute, Turkey. As a journalist he covered economy, Prime Minister’s office and diplomacy respectively. He was diplomatic reporter for Kanal 7, diplomatic editor at Cnn Turk and Jerusalem Bureau Chief of TRT. He served as chief advisor of Ahmet Davutoglu, Minister of Foreign Affairs (2009-2014) and Prime Minister (2014-2016) of Turkey.

 

 

 

Corina Stratulat is Senior Policy Analyst and the Head of the European Politics and Institutions Programme at the European Policy Centre (EPC). Her work at the EPC focuses on EU institutional developments and enlargement towards the Balkans. She holds an MPhil in Contemporary European Studies from the University of Cambridge, UK and a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute, Italy. Her main research interests include comparative Central and East European politics, parties and party systems, elections, democracy, EU institutions, integration, and enlargement policy.

 

Vazha Tavberidze is a Georgian journalist with 8 years of experience. Reporting on the topics of international security, conflict and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations, his work has been published in numerous Georgian and international outlets, including The Times, Der Profil, The Daily Beast and the IWPR. Most recently, he was the host of Realpolitik, a talk show about international politics and its impact on Georgia. He speaks English, Russian, German and Georgian.

 

 

H.E. Mr. Ulrik Tideström is Ambassador of Sweden to Georgia and Armenia since September 2018. Before that he was Deputy Head of Mission in the Swedish Embassies in Poland (2013-2018) and in Finland (2009-2013). Previously he was posted to Moscow, Kiev and St. Petersburg, and Head of Section for International Law in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm. Mr. Tideström has also been a consultant with McKinsey&Co and a lecturer at Uppsala University’s faculty of law.

 

 

Ketevan Tskikhelashvili is the State Minister of Georgia for Reconciliation and Civic Equality. Prior to undertaking this position, Ms. Tsikhelashvili was the First Deputy Minister at the same institution and the elected chairwomen of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum Georgian National Platform. She was the founder and director of the think tank, Liberal Academy Tbilisi that advocates for Georgia’s European integration. She was the representative and consultant to the German Fruedrich Naumann Foundation in Georgia and the South Caucasus for eight years. At different times she worked as a researcher and the analysis at the local and international organizations, including the University of Hamburg OSCER research center, the European Center, the NATO parliamentary Assembly’s Policy and Defense Department and European Stability Initiative in Georgia.  She also worked for public structures, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Research and Analysis Center (1998-1999), as well as the State Minister for Conflict Resolution Office (2004-2006). Ms. Tsikhelashvili received her Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from Tbilisi State University (1999) as well as Master’s Degree in International Relations and European Studies from the Central European University (2000). Ms. Tsikhelashvili pursues her academic career at Ilia State University and is an author of various academic works and publications.

Shota Utiashvili is the Senior Fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies since January 2016. Mr. Utiashvili has more than 15 years of work experience in international relations, security, EU integration and analytical fields. In 2012-2015 he was the Fellow at the Tbilisi Centre for Policy Analysis, Free University. In 2012 (September-November) Mr. Utiashvili was the First Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Penitentiary. In 2012 (July-September) he was the Director of Department of International and Public Affairs as well as the advisor of the Prime Minister at the State Chancellery of Georgia. In 2004-2012 Mr. Utiashvili worked at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia and held the position of Director of Department of Information and Analysis. Before that, in 2003-2004 he worked as a journalist at the daily newspaper “24 HOURS”. In 2002 he was the Fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, conducting research on Government Institutions in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. In 2001-2002 he was the Fellow at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Utiashvili holds a degree in International Law and International Relations from Tbilisi State University (1994-1999). He is an Alumni of the program in National Security and Public Policy (GFSIS, 2001-2002) Mr. Utiashvili has certificates from Monterey Institute of International Studies in International Non-Proliferation Programme (2001) and from Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in Black Sea Security Programme (2012).

Olesya Vartanyan is Crisis Group’s Analyst for the EU Eastern Neighbourhood. Based in Tbilisi, she researches and produces reports on regional security issues in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, with a particular focus on breakaway regions in the South Caucasus – Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and South Ossetia.

Olesya Vartanyan has worked on conflicts in the South Caucasus for more than ten years. Before joining Crisis Group in 2016, Olesya worked as a journalist, with a particular focus on security and conflict-related issues in Georgia and its breakaway regions. With her field reporting during the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, Olesya contributed to the ground-breaking investigations of The New York Times about the origins of the conflict. Enjoying unique access to Abkhazia, for a number of years she covered crisis developments in this region for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. In 2013, Olesya received the first EU Monitoring Mission’s special prize in Peace Journalism. She holds master’s degrees from the King’s College London’s War Department and from the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs’ Media School.

Kira Vinke works at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research as the project lead of EPICC (East Africa Peru India Climate Capacities), an interdisciplinary project on the co-production of knowledge about regional climate and hydrological systems and their interactions with agricultural livelihoods, human migration and security. Ms. Vinke is currently co-chairing the Advisory Council on Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding of the German Federal Government. From 2014-2016 she worked as an analyst to the PIK director for the German Advisory Council on Global Change to the Federal Government (WBGU). In 2014 she worked as a consultant for the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) on the nexus between climate change and migration into vulnerable cities in Southern Bangladesh. 2016 and 2017 Ms. Vinke worked as an external consultant for the Asian Development Bank developing the flagship report “A Region at Risk – The Human Dimensions of Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific.” 

Brian Whitmore is a Senior Fellow & Director of the Russia Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). Before joining CEPA he was Senior Russia Analyst at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty he also worked as a foreign correspondent for The Boston Globe in Moscow and Prague; as a graduate instructor in the Department of Government and International Studies at the University of South Carolina; and as a visiting lecturer in the History Faculty at Mechnikov National University in Odessa, Ukraine and the International Relations Faculty at St. Petersburg State University in Russia. He has a BA in Politics from St. Joseph’s University and an MA in Political Science from Villanova University.

 

Dirk Wiese was appointed as the new Coordinator for Intersocietal Cooperation with Russia, Central Asia and the Eastern Partnership Countries in April 2018 at the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Previously he was a Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in various federal states. Since 2008 he was SPD chairman in the city Brilon. In 2009 became a council member of the city Brilon until 2015. In 2012 he served as a chairman of the SPD in the Hochsauerlandkreis. Between 2015-2017 Dirk Wise was a Deputy Chairman of the SPD in Southern Westphalia. In 2017-2018 was a parliamentary state Secretary for Economic Affairs and Energy.

Ondřej Zacha is the Programme Manager for Eastern Neighbourhood projects at Stratpol – Strategic Policy Institute. He also works as a Reporter and Analyst in Voxpot, a Czech independent media.  He holds a Master’s degree of International Relations from the Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. He is an expert working on the South Caucasus and Conflict prevention. He completed the Robinson-Martin Security Scholars Program at the Prague Institute of Security Studies (PSSI) in 2017. At Stratpol he leads the South Caucasus Security Forum project and other Eastern Neighbourhood related activities. He focuses on Post-Soviet Security with a special interest in the South Caucasus and Unrecognised States; Russian Foreign Policy and Human Rights in Post-Conflict Societies. He contributes to various Czech media.

 

Colonel Jozef Zekucia (Ret.) is the Director of Stratpol since 2019. Previously, he served as the commander of the NATO Force Integration Unit (NFIU) in Slovakia. He was in service in the Slovak (previously Czechoslovak) army from 1989 until 2018 on numerous logistical positions. In 2013-2014, he served as a Liaison Officer to Turkish Forces UNFICYP Headquarters on Cyprus; in 2010, he assumed command of the 16th Slovak Contingent in Operation KFOR, Kosovo. From August 2007 to February 2008, he was deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation ISAF, during his service on Allied Land Component Command Headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany in 2005-2008. Col. Zekucia holds a Master Degree in Military Economics – Fuel Provision. His military education includes Junior Command and Staff Officers᾽ Course, Senior Command and Staff Officers᾽ Course at the Armed Forces Academy of General Milan Rastislav Stefanik in Liptovsky Mikulas, Slovakia; Defence and Operational Planning Course (DOPC) at Netherlands Defence College in The Hague, Netherlands and various courses at NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany. He is married to Slavka and has two daughters Julia and Sonia, and a son Jozef. He enjoys travelling and fishing.