International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS)

His areas of research include developments in NATO and the EU, as well as national security and defence related topics in the Nordic-Baltic region.

He has worked as Defence Counsellor to the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Estonia to NATO (2016-2019), at ICDS as a Research Fellow and Deputy Director (2010-2016) and at the Estonian Ministry of Defence on various positions: as Undersecretary for Defence Investments/National Armaments Director (2005-2010), as Undersecretary for Defence Planning (2004-2005) and (Deputy) Director of the Defence Policy and Planning Department (2002-2004). From 1998 to 2000 he served as an adviser of the Swedish Armed Forces to the Republic of Estonia; first in the Ministry of Defence, Defence Policy and Planning Department, and later in the Headquarters of the Estonian Defence Forces, J5/8. From 1995 to 1998 he worked in the Headquarters of the Swedish Armed Forces Land Forces directorate as a desk officer with budgeting and financial reporting.

Martin Hurt holds an M.A. in Social Sciences from the Estonian Business School and a BBA from Stockholm University.

Prior to joining ICDS, Tomas worked at the Baltic Defence College (BALTDEFCOL), first as deputy director of the College’s Institute of Defence Studies in 2001-2004, and later as dean of the college in 2005-2008. He was also involved in the post-graduate military diplomacy programme at the Lithuanian Military Academy. In 1998-2001 and in 2005, Tomas worked at the Defence Policy and Planning Department of the Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence. From 1998 -1999, he was a research fellow at the Swedish National Defence Establishment (FOA, now FOI).
Tomas holds a BA in political science from the University of Vilnius, an MA in war studies from King’s College London and an MBA degree from the University of Liverpool.

Ivo has also taught security related topics at the University of Tartu, the NATO School at Oberammergau and on the FRONTEX master’s programme on border management. He has worked as an Honorary Research Fellow at University College London’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Ivo’s professional and academic areas of interest have been information warfare and the intelligence services. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Tartu (2013) for his thesis on INFOSEC in prewar Estonia and an MA from the Central European University, Budapest (2003). Ivo is an accomplished academic and his publications have won several awards.

As part of the ICDS team, Ivo focuses on security and resilience, i.e. the countermeasures applicable to the wide variety of threats to Estonia and more widely to NATO and the EU. These include: intelligence/counterintelligence, terrorism/counterterrorism, information warfare/psychological defence, and other means of non-conventional foreign pressure and the national resilience required to cope with them.

Frank holds BA from Tallinn University and MA from the University of Tartu. During his master studies, he spent a semester in Hong Kong Baptist University and a year in Shanghai University in China. Frank holds also a MA in Asia-Pacific Studies from Taiwan National Chengchi University. Frank has gained valuable experiences at the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Delegation of the European Union to Taiwan and as NGO Mondo volunteer in Burma. He has worked as Mandarin Chinese lecturer at University of Tartu and Chinese studies visiting lecturer at Tallinn University.

Piret holds a BA in Politics with International Relations from the University of York, the UK, and an MA in International Security from Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA), Sciences Po Paris. During her master studies, she spent a semester at Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University in Washington D.C. Next to her studies, she has gathered experiences at European Parliament, Estonian Embassy in Tel Aviv, Estonian Ministry of Defence, Raleigh International Tanzania and Atelier Europe in Paris.

Between 2005 and 2013, Tony was also an Assistant Professor at the Baltic Defence College, responsible for the design and delivery of around 50% of the annual Higher Command Studies Course. Tony spent the first half of his career as a civil servant in the UK Ministry of Defence, including appointments in scientific research and procurement, and policy positions dealing with NATO issues, operational policy in the Balkans, the European Union’s security and defence dimension – now CSDP – and ballistic missile defence.

Tony hold a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, a master’s Degree in Defence Systems Engineering, and is a graduate of the annual International Training Course at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

More detailed Curriculum Vitae and academic overview is available on Estonian Research Information Portal: www.etis.ee/CV/Ramon_Loik/est?tabId=CV_ENG

Kristi has previously served inter alia as a Senior Research Fellow and Acting Programme Director at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki; an official at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union in Brussels; and a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels and the International Centre for Policy Studies in Kyiv. Kristi has a PhD from the University of Turku. She has published, lectured and commented widely on European foreign and security policy.

Among other fields, Stoicescu will specialize in issues related to Russian foreign and domestic policy, as well as developments in the field of the military, the economy, the media and minorities affairs.

Stoicescu served at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1991-2000, including as ambassador to the OSCE and ambassador to US and Canada. He was a member of the Estonian delegation in border negotiations with Russia and Latvia.

He worked for the Ministry of Defence from 2002-2014, first as civilian-military cooperation department head and then, from 2007, as counsellor on defence policy at the Estonian Embassy in Paris.

James is the author of Hard Diplomacy and Soft Coercion:  Russia’s Influence Abroad (Chatham House, 2013) and a wide range of other publications on Russia, Ukraine and European security. Latterly, he has published The Militarization of Russian Policy (Transatlantic Academy, July 2017) and is a co-author of the Chatham House Report, The Struggle for Ukraine (October 2017).

For over 25 years, he has been regularly consulted by Western governments on the foreign, defence and security policies of the Russian Federation and since 1995 has had an active advisory role in Ukraine, working closely with the defence and security establishment. Since 1991, James has been a frequent visitor to Estonia and its Baltic neighbours before taking up residence in January 2019.

From 2007-2015, Dmitri worked at the Estonian Ministry of Defence, where he was in charge of the field of defence-related research, industry and development, serving as Estonian national coordinator at the NATO Science and Technology Organization and promoting Estonia’s role in security-related cooperation projects at the European Commission and the European Defence Agency (EDA).

Dmitri led the launch of a security-related development programme aimed at young ethnic Russians in Estonia, called Sinu Riigi Kaitse (Defence of Your Country), the main purpose being to strengthen social cohesiveness by promoting the development of Estonian national identity among young Russian-speakers. Later, he took charge of establishing and conducting research activities, studies and projects at the National Centre for Defence & Security Awareness.

Dmitri holds a MS degree from the University of Tartu, has completed various internships abroad, including Vilnius University and NATO HQ, and has taken part in various professional training courses on security in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, the US and Canada as well as NATO and EU.

Currently, Dmitri is leading international research projects and outreach activities on informational and psychological resilience as well as investigates population’s receptiveness towards hostile ideologies, harmful influence and toxic propaganda from the standpoint of comprehensive national defence. Among the key topics, he studies contributing factors to national resilience, situational awareness in informational environment and role of social media as well as interdependencies between communication and behaviour. His main focus areas include the Baltic states, Ukraine and some Eastern European countries.