About the organisation

The Strategic Analysis is an independent boutique think-tank and a consulting company providing cutting-edge expertise for the private sector, state and public institutions, media, and civil society with a primary focus on the Western Balkan and Eastern Partnership countries. The Strategic Analysis team combines over a decade of experience working and networking across the Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership countries, implementing projects focusing on regional development, countering foreign malign influence, Euro-Atlantic integration, and post-conflict challenges mitigation.

Our expertise includes a thorough and deep knowledge and experience in both regions in terms of geopolitics, internal politics, international relations, security, economy, business environment, civil society, and culture. Thanks to years of developing relationships with the public and non-state actors across these regions, Strategic Analysis has an extensive networking capacity for interested decision-makers, business as well as civil society partners.

Mission

We analyse challenges and drive change in the Western Balkan and Eastern Partnership regions. We conduct our work focusing on four fields:

1. Regional Development, where we work towards decreasing disparity in underdeveloped areas, enhancing living standards, and creating more inclusive, more cohesive, and more resilient societies where everyone can thrive regardless of their socioeconomic background or geographical location.
2. Integration into the European Union, where we foster paths of countries in the EU’s neighbourhood willing to join the EU. We facilitate expertise-sharing between EU member countries and countries from the Eastern Partnership countries and Western Balkans.
3. Foreign information manipulation and interference is imposing increased political and security challenges. Through our work, we map the actors of malign influence in-depth and raise awareness of disinformation campaigns.
4. Post-conflict challenges mitigation, where we focus on obstacles which remain in societies after conflicts: we foster efforts towards countering radicalisation, jingoism, and cybernationalism, we analyse frozen conflicts, contact lines, de facto separatist entities and their social, economic and political impact.

Vision

Through our work, we aim to drive positive change in the European Neighbourhood, namely in the Western Balkan and Eastern Partnership countries, by contributing with our work to stability, security, prosperity, and cooperation across these regions. We aim to create strategies for sustainable growth that respect the environment and lessen national and international inequality. We advocate for encouraging the rule of law and dialogue over the use of force to lower human insecurity and increase resilience. We aim to facilitate more inclusive governance and increased political accountability. In addition, we keep track of the implications of technological progress that is reshaping our lives and their prospects.

Executive Team

Ján Cingel is the Founder and President of the Strategic Analysis, formerly a Research Fellow and the Head of the European Neighborhood Programme of the GLOBSEC Policy Institute, a Slovakia-based think-tank. Before, he worked as a project manager of the European Neighbourhood Development Programme at GLOBSEC (previously the Slovak Atlantic Commission). His areas of expertise are: the Western Balkans, South Caucasus, radicalisation, violent extremism, NATO, and the EU integration-related issues and processes. He has run numerous projects in Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. Before joining the Slovak Atlantic Commission, Jan worked at the Bilateral relations office of the Defence Policy, International Relations and Legislation Department of the Ministry of Defence of the Slovak Republic. He is one of the co-founders of the Bratislava Global Security Forum – GLOBSEC (since 2005). Jan graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences and International Relations of the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, with an MA. degree in International Relations and Diplomacy.

Alexandra Tóthová is the Executive Director at Strategic Analysis.  She is a political science graduate from BISLA, later she studied at the University of Vienna. Over her career, she interned at AmCham Slovakia, she worked for various Slovak think tanks including the GLOBSEC Policy Institute and MESA10, as well as for the humanitarian organization People in Need Slovakia in Ukraine and has experience from the corporate sphere. She volunteered at UN Climate Change Conference COP24. Alexandra is also a Fellow at the Internews’ Journalist Security Fellowship in Central Europe.

Tomáš Baranec is a Research Fellow and the Head of the Caucasus Programme of the Strategic Analysis. Tomas is a graduate of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University in Prague. He also spent one year as an exchange student at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, where he studied the transformation of the Caucasus region after the collapse of the Soviet Union. After finishing university, Tomas spent another year as a volunteer in Georgia, conducting monitoring and research on the Georgian-Ossetian ABL. Before joining Strategic Analysis, he worked as an analyst at the Institute of Security and Defence Studies in Bratislava, in the private sphere, and most recently in the News Agency of the Slovak Republic and Daily Standard in Slovakia. His research interests include nationalism, factors of ethnic conflicts and separatism, as well as the formation of collective identities with a focus on the Caucasus region.

Petra Bošková is a Project Manager and Researcher. Petra studied International relations at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. She was a Program Assistant at Euro- Atlantic Centre in Banská Bystrica. During her studies, Petra interned at Jagello 2000 during NATO Days and Czech Airforce Days at the VIP department, also at the Representation of European Commission in Slovakia at the Political and Media Department. Moreover, she participated in the project University Debates, organised by MESA10, during which they debated in Belgrade and Brussels about the role of the European Union and NATO and their influence in the Western Balkans. Her research interests include Russia’s influence in Western Balkans, Montenegro`s relations with the EU and Russia, and European Union`s neighbourhood policy.

 Young Leaders Programme

Lýdia Chobotová is an Intern of the Young Leaders Programme.   Lýdia is a student of European Studies at Comenius University in Bratislava, where she is mostly interested in human rights, cultural wars, and the integration of the Western Balkans into the European Union. She has also partaken in summer schools focused on extremism, radicalization, human rights, and democracy. 

Chiara Mihalčatinová is an Intern of the Young Leaders Programme. Chiara is a student of International Relations and Diplomacy at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. During her studies, she participated in the Erasmus exchange at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium and was also an intern at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in The Hague. Her academic work focuses on geopolitical developments in the Western Balkans with regard to the influence of state and non-state actors on the region. 

Sára Gregová is an Intern of Young Leaders Programme.   Sára is a student of International Relations at Masaryk University in Brno. She participated in Erasmus+ Program and studied International Politics at University of Bologna. In the past, Sára participated in V4 Conference Youth Project. Recently, she undertook an internship at the Demagóg.SK. Sára is also a member of Student Section of the International Institute of Political Science. She is  interested in French foreign policy, Caucasus region and the integration of the Western Balkans into the European Union.

Barbora Tomanová is an Intern of the Young Leaders Programme. She studies International Relations and European Studies at Masaryk University in Brno. During her studies, she took a part in the Erasmus programme and spent one semester at the University in Malta. Barbora was an intern at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic and is an active member of the Student Section of the International Institute of Political Science. Last year, she attended a course at Tallinn University in Estonia on the Impact of EU-Russia relations on the Eastern Partnership. Her academic interests include the South Caucasus region, the EU foreign policy, and the security situation in the Middle East.

Katarína Žiaranová is an Intern at the Young Leaders Programme. Katarína is a graduate of Regional Geography, Regional Development and European Integration at Comenius University of Bratislava. The focus of her diploma thesis was the politico-geographical analysis of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. The bachelor thesis was about the politico-geographical characteristics of an internationally unrecognized state, Transnistria. As a student she was an intern at Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic and at City Hall of Bratislava – the Capital City of Slovakia. She was working in Norway or in Spain during her summers as a student.

Victoria Mária Širocká is an Intern in the Young Leaders Programme. She is a student of International relations and European studies at the University of Masaryk in Brno. Regarding to the Erasmus+ program, she spent her last semester in Paris where she studied at theInstitute of Political Studies, SciencesPo. She is currently interning at the Parliamentaryinstitute of the National Council of the Slovak Republic while being an active member of the student Section of the International Institute of Political Science at her university. Victoria is generally interested in human rights issues. Still, her academic area of interest entails the EU and French foreign policy, security development in the MENA region and the rule of law issues in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans.

Natália Lešňovská is an Intern in the Young Leaders Programme. Natália is a student of International Relations at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. During her studies, she participated in the Erasmus exchange in Spain at the Complutense University of Madrid and interned at Globsec Bratislava Forum and at NATO Days and Czech Airforce Days. Natália is an active member of the student organization Euro-Atlantic Centre. In 2022 she was a Project Manager of Slovak Security Forum 2022, the second largest security conference in Slovakia. Right now she is doing her internship at the Slovak Embassy in Skopje. Natália is interested in the domestic and foreign policy of North Macedonia, with a specific interest in the country´s integration process with the European Union.

Matej Jadroň is an Intern in the Young Leaders Programme. Matej is a student of Economic Diplomacy at the University of Economics in Bratislava. He participated in the 2019 Ministerial Council of OSCE in Bratislava as an intern. He is an intern at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Skopje, North Macedonia, where he deals with the political situation in the country with the main emphasis on economic matters. His main research interest is the economic situation in the countries of the Western Balkans. 

Zuzana Šmilňáková is an Intern in the Young Leaders Programme. Zuzana is an International Relations student at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic focusing primarily on the post-conflict reconstruction of countries and democracy building. She was an intern at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Skopje, North Macedonia. She spent a semester abroad at Haifa University in northern Israel where she studied under experts on peace-building. Now she uses this expertise to analyze regional developments in the Balkans and Southern Caucasus. Apart from the academic sphere, Zuzana is involved in the NGOs working towards bettering democracy in the Slovak Republic. 

Štefan Talarovič is an Intern in the Young Leaders Programme. Štefan is a BA student of International Relations and Security & Strategic Studies at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. Currently, he undergoes an internship program at Adapt Institute as a Junior Analyst. He also participates in the project ‚Practice for universities, solutions for companies‘ 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 post-Soviet states, the region of MENA and Latin America.

Dominik Boris is an Intern of the Young Leaders Programme. Dominik is a student of European Studies at the Masaryk University in Brno. He participated in the Erasmus+ Program at the University of Beira Interior in Portugal. Nowadays, he is at the mobility in Cracow, focused on Europe from the Visegrad and Balkan Perspective. His primary focus is on the Visegrad Four and Western Balkan. He is interested in the current situation focused on security, democracy and EU policy in the regions.

Simona Škríbová is an Intern of the Young Leaders Programme. Simona is a student of  International Relations at Masaryk University in Brno. In the past, she undertook an internship at the Government Office of the Slovak Republic and the project Infosecurity.sk, where she is currently active as a Research Fellow. Apart from spending a semester abroad at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, where she is focusing on European and global security, she is also an active member of the Student Section of the International Institute of Political Science at her home university and engaged in projects focused on the involvement of young people in democratic life in their respective countries. Simona is generally interested in hybrid threats as well as strengthening resilience against them, international security, and EU foreign policy.

Matúš Vicen is an Intern of the Young Leaders Programme. Matúš is a student of International Relations and Security as well as European Studies and Diplomacy at Palacky University in Olomouc. He completed his internship at GLOBSEC Bratislava forum and his long-term internship at Europe Direct Olomouc. He is part of the student’s Political Science Club, where he organizes thematic debates and lectures. Matúš is mostly interested in East Asia, China’s influence and relations within CEE, and illiberalism within this region. The focus of his bachelor’s thesis is going to be on China’s surveillance technologies in the context of Serbia.

Aneta Migátová is an Intern of the Young Leaders Programme.  Aneta is a student of International Relations at Leiden University, currently on an academic exchange at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In addition to her academic pursuits, she previously interned at Globsec and the Embassy of Slovakia in the Netherlands. Her academic work focuses on the intersection of security, energy, and diplomacy as well as the expansion of the EU and NATO.