Dr Erik Kopač

Dr Erik Kopač holds a PhD in Defence Studies and is a researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana. His professional and academic work focuses on national and international security, defence policies and systems, crisis management and leadership, defence economics, and human resource management in the armed forces.

He graduated from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science, and from the Faculty of Economics at the same university with a degree in Economics. He completed his Master’s and doctoral studies in the field of defence studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences.

He began his professional career at the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia and subsequently continued it at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana, where he remains active in both teaching and research. As a visiting lecturer, he has also taught at the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Zagreb and the Inter-University Centre in Dubrovnik. He has also collaborated with the Slovenian Armed Forces Command and Staff College for many years.

In addition to his teaching and professional work, he has participated in numerous domestic and international research projects focusing of security, defence, the armed forces, crisis management, and critical infrastructure protection. He is the author of numerous scientific and professional publications, and is a member of several international professional and research associations.

Between 2016 and 2018, he served as State Secretary for National Security in the Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia. During this period, he led the Secretariat of the National Security Council, coordinating the activities of state bodies in the areas of national security, crisis management, and response to complex security challenges. He also served as head of the interministerial coordination group for the implementation of the arbitration award on the border between the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Croatia.

Between 2019 and 2023, he served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Slovenia to NATO in Brussels. In this role, he represented the Republic of Slovenia in the North Atlantic Council, the Alliance’s highest political body, and facilitated cooperation between Slovenian state institutions and the Alliance in the areas of security and defence.

He is fluent in English and Croatian, and can also communicate in French, Italian, and German.

Through his many years of work in academia, state institutions, and international organisations, he has gained extensive experience in the fields of national security, defence policy, international relations, the armed forces, and strategic and crisis management.