About us

Urtė Savickienė is the EESC’s administrator – public procurement specialist. She graduated from the Mykolas Romeris University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Law. Currently, she is studying for a Master’s Degree in Criminal Law at Vilnius University. Urtė joined the Eastern Europe Studies Centre in June 2020. She is tasked with organizing public procurements, drafting contracts, searching for vendors. In addition, she also consults employees in matters of effective public procurement. Furthermore, her responsibilities include the functions of an administrator. She provides the necessary work supplies, equipment, and space to ensure that work is performed appropriately.

Dorota Sokolovska is a project assistant at the Eastern Europe Studies Centre, she joined the team in July 2021. Dorota contributes to project administration and implementation, assists with organizing events and expert panels. D. Sokolovska is also engaged in analytical content creation, co-authored several studies. She has studied at Sciences Po university in Paris, has several years of professional experience in journalism. She is currently studying at the Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science. Her core interests are political philosophy, the history of ideas and the Eastern European region.

Simona has graduated from Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science with a bachelor‘s degree in political science, she is also a cadet at General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania Junior Officer Command Training (JOTC) programme. Simona joined the EESC in autumn of 2021 and is responsible for the organization of events and conferences, also contributes to the implementation of projects. Main interest areas are military, (national) security and defense affairs, Transatlantic relations, NATO activities.

Adam Roževič is a Project Manager at the EESC and also an active member of the Polish Discussion Club. Adam actively takes part in/organises various events and discussions promoting and encouraging dialogue, voicing the issues of ethnic minorities to governmental and non-governmental organisations. Furthermore, he is one of the organisers of the Young Political Scientist School, which teaches young people about fair elections, promotes the freedom of speech and equality, thus strengthening fair democratic processes in Lithuania. At the EESC, Adam contributes to various studies, writing policy papers and helping organise high-level events.

J. Vedrickas holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Politics from Aberystwyth University (UK) and a Master’s degree in East Asia Region Studies from Vytautas Magnus University and started working at the EESC in 2019. Jurgis is most interested in security policy, particularly questions relating to the East Asia region, cyber and information security matters. He is also the managing editor of The Lithuania Tribune news portal and has participated in various Model United Nations conferences in both Lithuania and abroad.

Justinas Kulys has been working at the EESC since the year 2019. He graduated from Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science with a bachelor’s degree in political science. Currently, J. Kulys is studying at Vilnius University’s Business School, International Project Management master programme. He is also a Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (Germany) Fellow. As a project manager, J. Kulys led the implementation of more than a dozen national and international projects with Lithuanian and foreign partners. He has contributed to the organisation of numerous high-level events and conferences. As a political analyst and freelance journalist, J. Kulys is actively engaged with and researches the history and politics of the Western Balkan states, maintains a keen interest in military affairs. He is a co-author of several academic studies.

Andrius Prochorenko has been working at the EESC since the year 2017. He is a graduate of the Vilnius University’s Institute of International Relations and Political Science, holds a Masters degree in Public Policy Analysis. Andrius is interested in the political economy and is responsible for the implementation of international projects related to hybrid threats, information warfare, and the development of Eastern Partnership countries, as well as the drafting of project applications and reports. He also contributes to the organizing of high-level political events and conferences, the implementation of other national and international projects, he is also a co-author of academic studies and is fluent in English and Russian.

Tomas Janeliūnas has been a professor at the Vilnius Institute of International Relations and Political Science (TSPMI) since 2015. He defended his doctorate in the social sciences at Vilnius University in 2006.

Between 2013 and 2018, he led the TSPMI International Relations Cathedral. Between 2009 and 2020, he was the Editor in Chief for the magazine Politologija. Between 2007 and 2017, he edited the releases of the Lithuanian Foreign Policy Review. Between 2010 and 2019, he was the politics editor and analyst for the magazine IQ.

T. Janeliūnas is an expert for the National Security and Defence Committee (drafting the Lithuanian National Security Strategy review), in 2016 and 2020, he was an expert for the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), in drafting positions for the Review of the European Neighbourhood Policy (REX/458-EESC-2016) and Towards a New European Neighbourhood Policy (REX/447-EESC-2015).

Analyst for the Delfi news poral (from 2008), TV3 political talk show host (from 2019). Headed the national broadcaster’s online news portal (holding the position of Editor in Chief from 2012 to 2019). Previously the Editor in Chief for the magazine IQ / Economist, Deputy Editor in Chief for the magazine Veidas, Editor in Chief for the news portal Alfa.lt, politics section chief at the ELTA news agency. Holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from Vilnius University. Areas of academic interest – political philosophy, history of ideas, political communication. Lectured on political science and political communication at Mykolas Romeris University and Vilnius University. Is the author of a dozen academic texts on political philosophy and political communications questions. Journalistic areas of interest – political life, information space, socio-cultural event analysis.

L. Kojala is the Director of the Eastern Europe Studies Center since July 2016. In 2021, he was elected for a second term.

L. Kojala is also teaching at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University. Previously he was a Fulbright Fellow at Davis Center, Harvard University (2017-2018), where he continues to contribute as an Associate at the Negotiation Task Force. In 2020, he was a Baltic Sea Fellow at Foreign Policy Research Institute (US).

L. Kojala is also a columnist and a regular political commentator at Lithuanian TV and radio, as well as international outlets (contributions to CNN, various European public broadcasters and others).

His research interests include international relations, US foreign policy, European integration, security and NATO. He wrote books on Lithuania’s accession to the European Union and Lithuanian-US relations. He was voted third (2019 and 2021) and fourth (2020) most influential Lithuanian public figure in annual polls by a national media outlet DELFI.

Rafael José de Espona is Correspondant Member – Section of Military Law of the Royal Academy of Law of Spain (RAJYL). He defended his doctorate at Law in 2008 (UDC – Spain). He belonged to the Board of Trustees of at the Vilnius Institute of International Relations and Political Science (TSPMI – VU) since 2008 till 2021. Between 2012 and 2015, he was Lecturer of the Universitary Course on Energy Security – Institute General Gutiérrez Mellado (IUGM – UNED) Spanish Ministry of Defence.

He joined in 2013 the International Editorial Board of the Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues (The General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania – Ministry of National Defence). Between 2018 and 2020, he was member of the STRATCOM Doctrine Study Group at the Spanish General Staff Commander`s Technical Cabinet (GABTECJEMAD). Since year 2004, Dr. De Espona is  Honorary Consul of the Republic of Lithuania to the Kingdom of Spain (region of Galicia).

Associate Expert of RESC China Research Program, PhD student at VU Institute of International Relations and Political Science. Raigirdas holds a bachelor’s degree in Asian and Pacific Studies (Chinese Studies) from Lancashire Central University (UK). After studying, he went to China, where he spent five years studying and working. Raigirdas completed a year-long intensive Chinese language and culture course at the Sichuan University (Confucius Institute Scholarship). In 2020, he graduated from Sichuan University (China) with a Master’s degree in International Relations in Chinese. Raigirdas interests: sinology, Chinese foreign and domestic policy, history of the PRC, relations and conflicts between East Asian countries.

Laurynas Jonavičius has been lecturing at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science in Vilnius University since 2009, and in 2010 he obtained here a Doctor’s degree in social sciences. Laurynas Jonavičius also worked as a foreign policy adviser in the Office of the President of the Republic of Lithuania in 2009-2014 and assisted the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) as an associate researcher in 2016-2019.

In addition to his work with the Eastern Europe Studies Centre, Justinas Mickus is an associate analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations and the Vilnius Institute of Policy Analysis. His main research areas include European integration, international political economy, industrial and competition policy, and informal cooperation in global politics. His study on the “Lithuanian Grand Strategy and European Defence Integration” was selected among the best 100 global think tank publications in 2018.

Justinas has obtained his education in politics and international studies at Princeton University (A.B, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and the University of Cambridge (MPhil).

Edward Lucas was a senior editor at the Economist newsweekly, and is the author of five books, including The New Cold War, published in 2008. Since 2010 he has been a non-resident fellow at CEPA, a bipartisan think-tank specialising in transatlantic affairs, where he leads a programme on Nordic-Baltic security and edits the weekly China Influence Monitor.  He lives in London.

Maksimas Milta is ReThink.CEE Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and a former Head of Communications and Development at the European Humanities University.

His comments on Belarus affairs regularly appeared in the Baltic, Dutch, German public broadcasters’, Le Figaro, Times Higher Education, BBC World News, and The New York Times reports and articles.

Recognizing his on-the-ground analysis during the 2020 Belarus Presidential elections, Maksimas became the laureate of the annual Titan award by the editorial team of Delfi.

Maksimas holds a master’s degree in political sciences from Vilnius University. Currently, he is a graduate student in European & Russian Studies at Yale.

Areas of interest: higher education, history of ideas, sanctions, small state studies.

Policy Analyst, Policy Analysis and Research Division

Prior to EESC, Dovilė Šukytė served as a Research Fellow in Washington, DC based think-tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Šukytė scholarly interests include the processes of democratization in Central and Eastern European states and the Caucasus, also the European integration of the Western Balkans.