Over the last few months, you may have seen quotes from our upcoming speaker in Reuters, Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and other publications. Dr. Jonathan Eyal is the Associate Director, Strategic Research Partnerships, and International Director, at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), and a sought-after expert on Eastern European relations.

On Tuesday, March 8th at 2 PM EST, Dr. Eyal will be speaking to us about “Geopolitical Perspectives and the Russia-Ukraine Crisis.” He will be introduced by his esteemed colleague—and previous TFED guest speaker—Dr. Karin Von Hippel, RUSI’s Director-General.

Dr Eyal is the Associate Director, Strategic Research Partnerships, and International Director, at the Royal United Services Institute.

He was born in Romania, but has lived most of his life in Britain. Educated at Oxford and London Universities, his initial training was in International Law and Relations, in which he obtained both his first degree and his Master's with a Distinction. His Doctorate, completed at Oxford in 1987, analysed relations between ethnic minorities in Eastern Europe since the end of the First World War.

Dr Eyal has completed books on military expenditure in the former Warsaw Pact and a published a study on military relations in the Balkans during the time of Communism. He is a regular commentator on East European affairs for The Guardian, The Independent, The Times dailies and the Observer newspaper on Sundays.

He has also given evidence to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on the conduct of British foreign policy in Eastern Europe, and the teams of experts which contributed to the peace plans for the former Yugoslavia. He has acted as an adviser to the European Union's studies on the process of dividing the assets of the former Yugoslav state, and has published two studies on the errors committed by the West in handling the Balkan conflict since 1991.

He is fluent in English, French, Romanian, Italian, Hungarian, and German.