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.

Rastislav Valentovič is the Financial Manager at Strategic Analysis. He graduated with a specialization in European Integration and Economics and Finance at the Faculty of Management of the Comenius University in Bratislava (2000) and studied international relations and the approximation of law at the Institute of International Relations and the Approximation of Law at the Faculty of Law of the Comenius University in Bratislava (2002). Rastislav has been working in the non-profit sector since 2000, gradually gaining work experience in the field of office management, administration, budgeting of projects and their implementation, coordination of experts and financial management of organizations. Rastislav was a full-fledged member of teams for the implementation and evaluation of several surveys and is a co-author of several publications and analytical studies.

 Young Leaders Programme

Anna Gúliková is an Intern in the Young Leaders Programme.  Anna is a Security and Strategic Studies and International Relations student at Masaryk University in Brno. She participated in an internship in a Czecho-Slovak think tank Security Outlines. Anna is an active volunteer in the Slovak office of an international organization covering exchange programs for high school students. During the past year, she became a part of the organization team for activities of the Department of Political Studies at her university. Anna is interested in international security, radicalization of religious groups, and terrorism. Her main focus is on the region of the Caucasus.

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. 

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.

Kristína Šebová is an Intern of the Young Leaders Programme. Kristína is a student of International Relations at the Faculty of Political Sciences and International Relations at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. She is active in a student NGO – Euro- Atlantic Center and participated during her studies as an Intern at the GLOBSEC conference and Tatra Summit. In 2023 she was also a project director of the Visegrad Youth Forum, an international conference for young leaders organized by the Euro-Atlantic Center. Her main area of interest is Bosnia and Herzegovina and its political system, dynamics, and integration process within the European Union. She is also interested in cyber security and the risks of AI for democracy.

Kristína Piknová is an intern in the Young Leaders Programme.  She is pursuing a Master’s degree in Security Studies at the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica. Kristína is active in the Euro-Atlantic Center, a student NGO. During her studies, she has completed several internships, including at the GLOBSEC conference and Amnesty International Czech Republic.

Vanesa Opšenáková is an Intern in the Young Leaders Programme.  She is a Security Studies student at Matej Bel University Faculty of Political Science and International Relations. Previously, she worked for two years as a Project Director at the Euro-Atlantic Centre, where she led mainly flagship projects, including the Slovak Security Forum 2023. During her undergraduate studies, she was part of the student section of the Faculty’s Academic Senate. She completed several internships, for example at Jagello 2000, the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Athens, and the Institute for Politics and Society.



Lucia Jašková is an Intern in the Young Leaders Programme. She is a European Studies student at Masaryk University in Brno. In the past, she was an intern in the Bratislava office of MEP Vladimír Bilčík. During this internship, Lucia focused on preparing research material and media content. She was an intern at the GLOBSEC Conference 2024, helping with the security and navigation of the event. She spent one semester at Lusófona University in Porto under the Erasmus+ Program. Her field of interest is Western Balkan, specifically the stabilitocracy in the region and its connection to the EU membership. She also takes an interest in the Chinese presence in the region and its economic interests in the Balkans.