Dr Joana de Deus Pereira is Senior Research Fellow at RUSI Europe specialising in Counter-Terrorism and P/CVE. She has particular expertise in the realms of geopolitical and country-risk analysis in sub-Saharan Africa.
She was involved in research and project management for a large number of EU-funded projects; in addition, Joana has also been engaged as an EU project evaluator for over three years and has deep experience in risk and security analysis with a focus on CT and P/CVE issues. Since October 2019, Joana is a certified lecturer and instructor at NATO Centre of Excellence Defence Against Terrorism (COE-DAT), where she teaches Border Security, Border Technology and Human Trafficking. Joana is also a Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for Policing and Security- USW, where she co-manages the activities of the first Jean Monnet Network on EU Counter-Terrorism. She is also the lead lecturer for Risk Management and Analysis, and International Security of Drugs, Human Trafficking and Organised Crime modules.
Joana holds a PhD from War Studies - King's College London focusing on the privatisation of security in the oil sector in Angola and Nigeria, and a post-doctorate in Migration Management and Border Security, a research project she managed under the H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship focusing on the role of private security providers in the management of the “so called” migration crisis and its impact for the European Agenda for Migration. She is a project Evaluator for the National Agency of Innovation (ANI - Portugal) and she began her career at the Ministry of Justice in Portugal as International Relations officer within the Extrajudicial Administration Directorate. Joana recently joined PSIA - Sciences Po, in Paris, as Adjunct Professor where she lectures "Border Security and Border Management".
For media inquiries, please contact our Communications and Event Manager, Balázs Gyimesi, at [email protected]
Balázs Gyimesi is RUSI Europe's Communication and Events Manager. Balázs manages RUSI Europe's outreach strategy and communications outputs and produces research on public diplomacy and strategic communications.
Balázs previously worked as Communications Officer at the OECD Public Sector Integrity Division, where he managed the communications on integrity, countering disinformation and lobbying-related workstreams, and produced research on anti-corruption communications.
Balázs holds a Master's degree in European Affairs from Sciences Po Paris, a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the Vienna University of Economics and Business, and a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from the Corvinus University of Budapest. He speaks English, French, German, and Hungarian. Balázs joined RUSI Europe in August 2022.
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Dr Kinga Redlowska is the Head of CFS Europe. She leads the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies' activities in Brussels that centre around the intersection of illicit finance and security, and are focused on the EU and its neighbourhood. The list of flagship projects includes Euro SIFMANet (European Sanctions and Illicit Finance Monitoring and Analysis Network) and Project SMURF (Supervising and Monitoring Ukraine’s Reconstruction Funds).
Prior to joining RUSI, she served as a Programme Director at the Warsaw-based Institute for Eastern Studies, the organiser of the renowned geopolitical conference Economic Forum. Kinga authored articles on Central Europe, transatlantic relations, and on the US and the EU activities in sub-Saharan Africa. She is an alumna of the Denton Fellowship Program held by a Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). She holds an MA in American Studies and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Warsaw.
Isabella Vogel is a Programme Manager with the Terrorism and Conflict Research Group at RUSI Europe in Brussels. In this role, she supports the group’s efforts to provide EU,NATO, and other policymakers with rigorous, evidence-based data and analysis on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE). As a Project Coordinator for RAN PS Western Balkans, she supports the project’s research and knowledge generation activities. Isabella also collaborates closely with colleagues based in RUSI’s London and Nairobi offices, contributing to initiatives on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), Climate-Conflict intersections, and addressing the underlying drivers of violent extremism and conflict in the Horn of Africa.
Before joining RUSI Europe, Isabella was the Initiative Coordinator and Liaison Officer at the Global Counterterrorism Forum. In this capacity, she oversaw key initiatives such as the Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism Toolkit, the Gender and P/CVE Policy Toolkit, and the Gender and Identities Factor Platform. She also cultivated and managed relations with close partners including GCERF, Hedayah, the IIJ, the Council of Europe, OSCE, CAERT, and the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact. Isabella’s prior experiences include managing projects that promoted gender equality, conflict resolution, and safe, orderly migration in the MENA region. She is a Prince2-certified Project Manager. Isabella holds a Master of Science in Political Science with a focus on Conflict and Cooperation, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies with a focus on the MENA, both from Leiden University, the Netherlands.
Petra Regeni is a Research Analyst and Project Officer in the Terrorism and Conflict group at RUSI Europe, based in Brussels. Petra’s expertise encompasses radicalisation, extremism, and the prevention and countering of violent extremism (P/CVE), primarily in Europe and neighbouring regions, with a focus on tech and online spaces, malign foreign funding and influence, mis-/disinformation, and P/CVE policies.
Petra has a diverse portfolio of work that includes radicalisation in online gaming spaces, disinformation and AI influence (primarily Russian), and P/CVE policy and programming. She also acts as the coordinator of the Extremism and Gaming Research Network (EGRN) and supports RUSI’s Far-Right Extremism and Terrorism programme. Previously, she was part of RUSI Europe’s project and research team implementing the EU-funded Radicalisation Awareness Network (RAN) Policy Support project until August 2024, which aimed to provide EU policymakers with evidence-based data and analysis on extremism and P/CVE policy.
Prior to joining RUSI Europe in 2021, she worked in the research and analysis department at Hedayah and as a capacity building and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) officer at Trust Consultancy in Turkey. Petra holds a BA with Honours in Political Science from Dalhousie University, completed an exchange programme at the Australian National University, and an MSc in International Crimes, Conflict and Criminology at the VU Amsterdam. She was also an output lead for the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism's (GIFCT) 2023 Working Group on Legal Frameworks and is an alumna of the German Marshall Fund’s 2022 Young Professionals Summit Programme.
