Executive
Chief Executive Director
Matej Kandrík
Matej is a cofounder of Adapt Institute and a PhD candidate in Political Science with a specialisation in Security and Strategic Studies at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia. In 2016 he did a research stay at the National Defence University of Poland. He collaborated as an external analyst with Visegrad Insight and as a research fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the
United States. Since 2017 he was working at STRATPOL – Strategic Policy Institute, between 2019 – 2022 in the position of executive director. His research interests include comprehensive defence, paramilitarism, strategic communication and propaganda.
Deputy Director
Kamila Koníková
Kamila is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the Comenius University in Bratislava with research on private military and security companies in connection to the security policy of the EU. Her previous experience includes working for non-governmental organization Slovak Security Policy Institute and working for a member of parliament. During her studies
she also took part in an internship at the Foreign Affairs Committee at the National Council of the Slovak Republic and at the think tank MESA10. She is also a Manfred Wörner Seminar/Euro-Atlantik Seminar alumnus.
Project Director of Infosecurity.sk
Peter Dubóczi
Graduated from Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Slovakia in 2019 with Master’s degree in Political Science. Currently, he is an internal doctoral student at the Department of Political Science at the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, where his research focuses on the open society concept and liberal democracy in the environment of international relations.
He is also the deputy director of the Infosecurity.sk portal and an analyst of the MapInfluenCE project of the Association for International Affairs. He is interested in political philosophy, national populism, cognitive security and hybrid threats.
Editor-In-Chief of Adapt publications
Matúš Jevčák
PhD student in political science specializing in security and strategic studies at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. In his research, he focuses primarily on Turkey and the neighboring regions. In the past, he was an intern at the Institute for Security
and Defense Studies (IBOS) or the Turkish think-tank MURCIR. He also cooperates with the Istanbul based think-tank BILGESAM.
Communications Manager
Jana Kleščová
Graduated in International Trade and European Integration with a focus on disinformation and hybrid warfare at the University of Economics in Prague. As part of her master’s degree, she participated in the Master of International Studies
exchange program at North Carolina State University. In the last year of her studies worked for the Czech think-tank European Values and, together with her classmates, founded an internationally successful branch of the think-tank European Horizons at the University of Economics where she was in charge of PR and communication. Her professional life led her to marketing position in non-profit organization Nexteria at its project Night of Chances and later in one of the largest Slovak full-servise advertising agencies, Istropolitana Ogilvy.
Research Fellows
Viliam Ostatník
Viliam Ostatník, Ph.D., is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Political Science at the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. In his doctoral research, he focused on the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU (CFSP),
more specifically on the processes of the formation of the CFSP (the sanctions policies) vis-à-vis Russia in recent years. In his postdoctoral research, he focuses on the private military corporations and their impact on the core functions of the modern state. He graduated from the Comenius University (International Relations and European Affairs, B.A.) and from the University of Bologna (International Relations with a specific focus on Central and Eastern Europe, M.A.). At Adapt, he is a Senior Analyst and he focuses on comprehensive defence, the defence industry, and geo-economic resilience. He previously interned at the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as at the Slovak Embassy in the United States of America. In 2022, Viliam was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy, and Strategy at the Brussels School of Governance (VUB). He has actively participated at various academic conferences and seminars, and has also conducted active co-operation not only with research institutions both at home and abroad, but also with government entities and think-tanks, drafting policy-briefs, presenting analyses, risk assessments, and strategies.
Samuel Zilincik
Samuel Zilincik is a doctoral student of security and strategic studies at Masaryk and Leiden Universities and a lecturer at the University of Defence in the Czech Republic. His research interests include military strategy in general and its emotional aspects
in particular. His work has appeared in the Journal of Strategic Studies, Texas National Security Review, the RUSI Journal, and Military Strategy Magazine. He was awarded the 2022 Amos Perlmutter Prize, the 2020 “Under 30s“ Trench Gascoigne Essay Prize and second place in the 2018 Strategy Bridge writing contest.
Michaela Ružičková
Michaela Ružičková is a PhD student at the Department of Political Science at the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice. She completed an internship at the Office of the President of the Slovak Republic at the Foreign Policy Department. She worked as a
content editor for the Digital Infospace Security Initiative newsletter on disinformation. She is an author and content editor for Infosecurity.sk
Daša Židuliaková
Daša Židuliaková is a MA student in the Middle East and North Africa at Sciences Po Grenoble in France. Her research focuses on Iran, Shia Islam and religion in the foreign policy of the Middle Eastern countries. She conducted research on the given topics in
Iran, Lebanon and Turkey. She is currently conducting field research as part of her Master’s thesis devoted to “The Role of the Diyanet and Islamic NGOs in Humanitarian Diplomacy of Turkey”.
Alexandra Fratric
Alexandra holds MA and MSc degrees in International Business Development and
Marketing from Austria and Russia, as well as a BBA degree in Businessdministration from Finland. Currently, she is a master’s degree student of International Relations
at the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. Her previous work experience includes a Blue Book Program at the European Commission with a focus on enhancing the EU-US cooperation in the fields of technology standards and prevention of misuse of technologies threatening security and human rights. Prior to that, she worked at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria where she was managing numerous artificial intelligence and innovation projects funded by the EU.
Alžbeta Gavalcová
Alžbeta Gavalcová is a student of International Relations and Energy Security at Masaryk University in Brno and graduate of Economic Diplomacy at the University of Economics in Bratislava. She focuses on topics of energy security and green
transformation. During her studies, she had been working for many years at the Slovak Institute for Security Policy on security issues. She also worked at GLOBSEC as a research assistant on the topics of economic growth and sustainability and has recently completed a traineeship at the European Commission. In addition, she previously interned at the British Chamber of Commerce, Trnava Self-governing region and Demagog.sk.
Matúš Bučko
Matúš graduated with Bachelor’s degree in field of European Studies at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia. In 2021-2022 he collaborated with Infosecurity.sk. Since 2021 he writes short texts for STRATPOL – Strategic Policy Institute. His research
interests include international security, external relations of the EU and internal politics of Western Balkan states.
Junior Research Fellows
Matej Rafael Riško
Katarína Ďurďovičová
Katarína is now pursuing her final year of a Master’s degree in International Security at Sciences Po, with a special focus on Global Risks and Intelligence. She completed her undergraduate degree in International Relations at the University of Essex
with a particular focus on security and armed conflict, corruption and authoritarian regimes. Her research interests include security in contemporary geopolitical context, such as climate change, peace and security within the European Union’s, nuclear arms control as well as the study of the practices of authoritarian regimes.
Pavol Beblavý
Pavol is a secondary school student in Year 7 at the School for Exceptionally Gifted Children and Grammar School. He is a graduate of the Anton Neuwirth College Summer University, a former intern at GLOBSEC, and the current Secretary General
of Aprogen Model United Nations. He specializes in international relations in the Global South, such as Latin America and Africa. Within Adapt Institute he writes briefs and research papers and takes part in bigger projects.
Martin Gvoth
Martin is currently in the first year of a Master’s degree in International Security with minor in Diplomacy and Intelligence at Sciences Po, Paris. Prior to this, he earned his undergraduate degree in International Relations and Arabic at the SOAS,
University of London with a particular focus on security and Middle East – more specifically Palestinian-Israeli conflict. During his undergraduate studies he had also completed a year abroad at An-Najah National University in Nablus, Palestine, studying Arabic, Arab Culture and Middle Eastern politics in Arabic. He is particularly interested in the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, especially vis-á-vis the Middle East as well as the geopolitics of energy transition, and hybrid threats.
Lucia Kobzová
Lucia Kobzová is a master’s student of Public Policy with a focus on Digitalization at Sciences Po in Paris and also works as a journalist for the technology platform Žive.sk (aktuality.sk) where she covers topics on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
In the past, she interned at the Office of the President of Slovak Republic, the Ministry of Investment, Regional Development, and Informatization, and wrote article for the Infosecurity.sk portal. She also worked as a project and PR manager at the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. She is particularly interested in the impact of technology on society development.
Raul Bertoldini
Raul Bertoldini is a researcher and geopolitical analyst from Italy. He obtained his international relations’ BA in 2021 in Milan, with further specialisation in European Studies at ISPI. He is currently a graduate student of Geopolitics
at the Charles University, Prague, and cooperates with think-tanks in his home country and abroad. The main focus of his work concerns the US and European political and security environment, both at a national and supranational level.
Štefan Talarovič
Štefan is a BA student of International Relations and Security & Strategic Studies at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. He also participates in the project “Prax pre univerzity, riešenia pre firmy” by the Slovak Investment
and Trade Development Agency (SARIO), where he is part of the marketing team. His areas of interest include the security issues in the region of MENA, the post-Soviet states and Latin America.
Bianka Niňajová
Bianka is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in European Studies at Comenius
University in Bratislava. She successfully completed an Erasmus exchange
program in Tallinn, Estonia, during her studies.
For several months, she was a member of the Infosecurity.sk team. Her areas of interest include current international developments, geopolitics, and energy issues.
Timotej Kováčik
Timotej is a MA student of European studies, and International Relations and Energy Security studies at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. He spent his stay abroad at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain,
and attended the Summer School of EU diplomacy at the University of Pisa. He is a member of Slovak fact-checking project Demagóg.sk since 2021 and was part of EP campaign in 2019. His professional interests include EU foreign and defense policy (CFSP/CSDP), energy security and EU energy policy.
Juraj Kvak
Juraj is a graduate of Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica with a bachelor’s degree in History. From 2014 to 2019, he observantly followed the development of the civil war in Syria, with increased attention to the activities of the Russian
expeditionary forces after their involvement in that conflict. Nowadays, he (in a greater depth) monitors, analyses and evaluates the realities of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict (and its impacts on European security). The main areas of his interest are military and economic aspects of this conflict.
Alena Bendáriková
Alena studied Security studies at University of Matej Bel in Banská Bystrica. During the studies she interned at Jagello 2000 at the time of NATO days and Czech Airforce Days at VIP department. Furthermore, she participated in the „Spring debates“
project organized by MESA10 and Human Forum organized by Faculty of Political Science and International Relations. Nowadays she is primarly focused on security and defence policy of Baltic states and Enhanced Forward presence in the eastern part of the Alliance.
Dominik Lelkes
Dominik is a MA student of European Studies and International Relations at the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences at Comenius University in Bratislava. He is a civic activist at the European Parliament Office in Slovakia
and a member of the European Democracy Youth Network and Robert Schuman Foundation.
Jerguš Lajoš
Jerguš is a student of Security and Strategic Studies at Masaryk University in Brno. His primary area of interest is hybrid threats, specifically information warfare and psy-ops. Among other things, he also focuses on nuclear security and threats
in the energy sector. He is also a member of the Infosecurity.sk team.
Associated Fellows
Adam Potočňák
Adam Potočňák graduated from the master’s program in security and strategic studies at the Faculty of Social Science, Masaryk University in Brno and is currently a doctoral student of political science specializing in international security at the same faculty/University.
He has worked as a research fellow at the Centre for Security and Military Strategic Studies at the University of Defence in Brno since December 2019. His research focuses comprise armed conflicts analysis, great power rivalry, security and defence policies of the USA and Russian Federation and security in the Caucasus region. He graduated from several courses on international relations, military security, defence policy and global challenges (in Russia, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic).
Weronika Grzebalska, Ph.D.
Dr. Weronika Grzebalska is a sociologist and an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Weronika’s work centers on the changing nature of the military and defense in contemporary Central and Eastern
Europe, exploring issues such as regional (para)militarism, society-military relations, memory of war, and gender politics of defense. Her doctoral thesis was dedicated to the rise of post-1989 Polish paramilitary organizing amidst structural demilitarization under Pax Europaea. In the past, she was a RethinkCEE fellow at the German Marshall Fund, a Trajectories of Change fellow of the ZEIT-Stiftung, a Kosciuszko Foundation visiting scholar at Clark University, member of the FEPS Young Academics Network, and a president of the Polish Gender Studies Association.
Jaroslav Cabuk
Jaroslav Cabuk is a graduate in International Relations (bachelor’s degree) and in Security Studies (master’s degree) from the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations of Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, while, under the Erasmus program, he also
accomplished graduating Military and Defense program in University of Ljubljana. Since March 2022, he has been working in the Defense Policy Section of the Ministry of Defence, where he also completed an internship the previous year. Since 2020, he has been collaborating as an external analyst for the Institute of Strategic Policies and as an author of articles for The Aviation Geek Club. In his work he focuses primarily on the Western Balkans. Jaroslav is a member of the Military History Club Pravda víťazí!, which, as one of the few similar clubs in Europe, focuses on the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.