October 29, 2020

Indrek Kannik Appointed as Director of the ICDS

Photo: Estonian Center of Eastern Partnership

The supervisory board of the International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS) selected Indrek Kannik to be the new Director of the ICDS following a public competition. Kannik will take up his position at ICDS on 23 November 2020.

Kristan Prikk, Chairman of the supervisory board and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence of Estonia, is confident that Kannik will continue to vigorously develop the ICDS. “Indrek Kannik’s long experience in the field of security and defence, including as Minister of Defence, Member of the Riigikogu and Security Policy Adviser to the President of the Republic of Estonia, make him ideally qualified to represent Estonia’s security challenges, both in Estonia and abroad,” notes Prikk.

“It is a great honour to start working for the ICDS, which in 15 years has grown into one of the leading think tanks for defence and foreign policy in the Baltic Sea region. The world around us is currently volatile. In this situation, the task of the ICDS is to understand and explain the changes as accurately as possible both in Estonia and with our partners, ”says Kannik, who currently works as the Director of Analysis at the Estonian Center of Eastern Partnership.

The ICDS and its operating unit, the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute, carry out a wide range of research in foreign, security and defence policy both in Estonia and with partners abroad. In addition to these research activities, ICDS organises the Lennart Meri Conference, the Estonian National Defence Course and the Annual Baltic Conference on Defence, and publishes the Diplomaatia newspaper.

The supervisory board of the ICDS includes Kristjan Prikk, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence of Estonia (Chairman); Marko Mihkelson, Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu; Peeter Kuimet, Security Policy Adviser to the President of Estonia; Indrek Sirp, Director for National Security and Defence Coordination at the Government Office of Estonia; Dmitri Jegorov, former Permanent Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance of Estonia; and Rainer Saks, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia.

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