Areas of expertise: informational and psychological resilience; Russian influence activities in Estonia and Ukraine; interdependencies between communication and behaviour; Ukraine’s national security and resilience
Languages: English, Russian, Estonian
Dmitri Teperik joined ICDS on 1 August 2015 as a research fellow on strategic communication. Starting from 11 January 2016, he was appointed by the Supervisory Board as Chief Executive of the International Centre for Defence and Security.
From 2007-2015, Dmitri worked at the Estonian Ministry of Defence, where he was in charge of the field of defence-related research, industry and development, serving as Estonian national coordinator at the NATO Science and Technology Organization and promoting Estonia’s role in security-related cooperation projects at the European Commission and the European Defence Agency (EDA).
Dmitri led the launch of a security-related development programme aimed at young ethnic Russians in Estonia, called Sinu Riigi Kaitse (Defence of Your Country), the main purpose being to strengthen social cohesiveness by promoting the development of Estonian national identity among young Russian-speakers. Later, he took charge of establishing and conducting research activities, studies and projects at the National Centre for Defence & Security Awareness.
In 2016, Dmitri was a co-founder of the international training and co-operation platform Resilience League which focuses on empowering young professionals and experts with practical skills and tools for developing cognitive resilience against hostile disinformation, societal polarisation and harmful radicalisation. Dmitri has been Programme Director of the autumn and spring schools – international training events organised under the auspices of the Resilience League.
Since 2016, Dmitri has been leading the development co-operation programme “Resilient Ukraine” which focuses on measuring and strengthening national resilience in vulnerable societies and communities in Ukraine.
Dmitri holds a MS degree from the University of Tartu, has completed various internships abroad, including Vilnius University and NATO HQ, and has taken part in various professional training courses on security in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, the US and Canada as well as NATO and EU.
Currently, Dmitri is leading international research projects and outreach activities on informational and psychological resilience as well as investigates population’s receptiveness towards hostile ideologies, harmful influence and toxic propaganda from the standpoint of comprehensive national defence. Among the key topics, he studies contributing factors to national resilience, situational awareness in informational environment and role of social media as well as interdependencies between communication and behaviour. His main focus areas include the Baltic states, Ukraine and some Eastern European countries.
