Tomas
Valasek, Director of foreign policy and defence
Tomas
Valasek is director of foreign policy & defence.
He has written extensively on transatlantic relations,
common European foreign and security policy and on
defence industrial issues. He is also a senior advisor
to the Brussels office of the World Security Institute.
Previously,
he served as Policy Director and head of the Security
and Defence Policy Division at the Slovak Ministry
of Defence. He oversaw the ministry's defence analysis,
planning & evaluation activities as well as its
legislative efforts, military missions and international
security initiatives. He was responsible for relations
with NATO and the EU and advised Ukraine and Bosnia,
among others, on NATO and EU integration.
Before
joining the ministry of defence Tomas Valasek founded
and directed the Brussels office of the World Security
Institute (formerly the Center for Defence Information,
CDI), a Washington, DC-based independent defence and
security think-tank (2002-2006). From 1996 to 2002
he worked as Senior European Analyst in CDI's Washington,
DC office.
Mr.
Valasek is the editor and co-author of "The 'Easternization'
of Europe's Security Policy" (IVO-CDI, October
2004), and numerous articles appearing in newspapers
and journals including Wall Street Journal,
Jane's Defence Weekly, and the Cambridge
Review of International Affairs.
He
is a holder of an M.A. in International Affairs from
the George Washington University in Washington, DC,
and a B.A. in journalism from the University of Georgia
in Athens, Georgia. He speaks Slovak, Czech and French.
