Velina Tchakarova is director at the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy (AIES) in Vienna, Austria and peer board member of the Defence Horizon Journal. She is a lecturer at the Real World Risk Institute and a member of the Strategic and Security Policy Advisory Board of the Science Commission at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Defence. Velina holds an MA from Heidelberg University, Germany, and a BA from the University for World and National Economy, Bulgaria.