Vlad Vernygora is a DSocSc candidate at the University of Lapland (Finland), Vice-Rector for International Affairs at Khazar University (Azerbaijan), and a lecturer in International Relations at the Department of Law, Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia). Vlad is Honorary Consul of Fiji in Estonia. His research interests include contemporary political empires, strategic communication, strategic narratives, Europe's as well as NATO' interactions with the Asia-Pacific, cybersecurity, the EU and its neighbourhood, and the Belt and Road Initative. In 2014-2017, Vlad Vernygora has been managing the operational side of the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme Project 'NATO Global Perceptions - Views from the Asia-Pacific Region' (acknowledged as the most international project in social sciences ever conducted under the 'umbrella' of NATO SPS Programme). Vlad holds Tallinn University of Technology's Teaching Award of 2015 and a short-listed nomination for Estonian University Teaching Award in 2016. For years, Vlad has been actively cooperating with the EP to Campus Programme, effectively engaging it with several TalTech-bound academic courses. Apart from teaching at TalTech and Khazar as well as delivering numerous open lectures in Europe and the Asia-Pacific, Vlad have had successful experiences of teaching at the University of Latvia (2017), Comenius University in Bratislava (2018), Turiba University (2019), and during Summer Universities organised by the Centre International de Formation Europeenne - in Akdeniz University (Turkey, 2015) and Alcide De Gasperi University of Euroregional Economy (Poland, 2016).

From 2011, Vlad has been personally invited to deliver about 40 presentations at high-profile international seminars/round tables/forums in 11 different countries (Belgium, China, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Slovakia, and Turkey), including open lectures and presentations delivered at Nanyang Technological University, Korea National Diplomatic Academy, Parnu Leadership Conference, the Riigikogu, the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies (for The Citadel cadets), and Hungarian Academy of Science. In different capacities, he has been contributing to the Riga Conference (from 2015) and the Estonian Atlantic Treaty Association's activities (from 2018). On the annual basis, he is invited to participate in the Riga StratCom Dialogue. In the last 15 years, Vlad has been publishing extensively in Australia, China, Germany, Estonia, Malta, New Zealand, Spain, Poland, Ukraine, and the United States, having also co-edited four special issues of academic journals (Croatia, the United States, and Estonia), including a top-25 US journal in social sciences, Asian Security.

Contact: vlad.vernygora@gmail.com