Petr Fiala is a political scientist, politician and a professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Masaryk University in Brno. He has been a member of the Parliament of the Czech Republic since 2013, served as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic from 2021 to 2025, and was Minister of Education from 2012 to 2013. In the 1980s, he took part in independent civic activities opposing the communist dictatorship. After November 1989, he helped establish the field of political science, led a number of political science departments, and served, among other roles, as Dean of the Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University. He was appointed the first professor of political science in the Czech Republic.
From 2004 to 2011, he was Rector of Masaryk University, which during that period became the most sought-after Czech university and a major Central European educational and research institution. Under his leadership, among other achievements, the Masaryk University Campus was built—one of the largest higher-education construction projects in Central and Eastern Europe—and the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) project was launched. He has long been active in institutions and bodies dealing with higher education and research in the Czech Republic and abroad, and he also served as President of the Czech Rectors’ Conference. In his scholarly work, he specializes in comparative and European politics. He is the author of more than 20 books and 300 papers.
Masaryk University is the coordinating partner of the
Dr Nina Græger is the former Director of PRIO and former Head of the Department of Political Science and Professor in International Relations at the University of Copenhagen. She has held researcher and management positions at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) and has been Associate Professor II at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). As a junior researcher, she also worked for two periods at PRIO.
Nina Græger is currently interested in how geopolitics, the Ukraine war and the transformation of NATO affect Nordic and European security. Her latest publications include the 2025
Nina Græger holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Oslo (2007). Her education also includes the Executive Management Programme at INSEAD International Business School/Institut européen d'administration des affaires (2024). Nina Græger´s positions of responsibility include President of the Nordic International Studies Association (NISA) and Member of the Advisory Board of the International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE) at the University of Ulster.
Henry E. Hale is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University (GW), where he also directs the
Dr Kristi Raik is the Director of ICDS from 1 January 2025. She is also an Adjunct Professor of International Relations at the University of Turku. She has previously served as the Deputy Director of ICDS, Director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute at the ICDS, Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs and official at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. Her main areas of expertise are European security, strategic competition in Eastern Europe, EU foreign and security policy, and foreign and security policies of the Baltic states and Finland.
She has published in high-ranking academic journals (e.g. Geopolitics, European Security, Cooperation and Conflict) and media outlets (incl. Foreign Policy). She is a frequent commentator in the international media and has provided expert contributions to the Estonian, Finnish, EU and NATO institutions. Kristi has a PhD from the University of Turku.
Positions of responsibility
Dr. Polina Sinovets is the Founder and Head of the Odesa Center for Nonproliferation (OdCNP) at Odesa I.I. Mechnikov National University (Ukraine). In this role, she leads OdCNP's education, training, research, and outreach activities.
Since October 1, 2024, Dr. Sinovets has also been working as a visiting researcher at Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in Rome, while continuing her work as a senior lecturer at Odesa I.I. Mechnikov National University. She is the author, co-author of multiple publications on nuclear weapons policy of the US and Russia, nuclear deterrence, strategic stability, European security in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Slavic Journal of Military Studies, NATO Defence College Research Papers, The Nonproliferation Review, as well as the editor of Ukraine’s Nuclear History: A Non-Proliferation Prospective (Springer, 2022), Arms Control and Europe. New Challenges and Prospects for Strategic Stability (Springer, 2022), Russia’s War on Ukraine: The Implications for the Global Nuclear Order (Springer, 2023)