The Estonian Foreign Policy Institute was merged with the ICDS in 2017 and has been operating as an autonomous unit under the ICDS since then. In the course of five years, it has grown into a strong branch of research and analysis, covering a range of key foreign and security policy topics that affect Estonia and being well networked with European and North American think tanks. The strengthening of the EFPI has been greatly supported by the administrative and intellectual framework of the ICDS.
As of January 2023, the EFPI will be fully integrated with the organizational structure of the ICDS and all of its activities will continue under the name of the foreign policy programme of the ICDS. This will streamline our organization and communication and allow us to further enhance the visibility of the excellent research on foreign policy matters conducted by our fellows, be it on Russia, China, EU foreign and security policy or transatlantic relations. In the past years, we’ve had fruitful cooperation between the foreign policy, security and defence programmes at the ICDS and we wish to encourage even closer synergy in the future.
This organizational reform will further strengthen the ICDS as a leading defence, security and foreign policy think tank in the Baltic region.
Kristi Raik, who has been director of the EFPI since 2018, will assume the new position of deputy director and head of the foreign policy programme of the ICDS. All EFPI researchers continue working as ICDS researchers.
Kristi Raik, deputy director and head of the foreign policy programme of the ICDS: „I am committed to build on the work done over the past five years and further strengthen research on key foreign policy topics for Estonia at the ICDS. This is particularly important now that Europe is going through turbulent times and international interest in Estonia’s expertise on European security is higher than ever. The new organizational structure will make our work more efficient and visible.“
Indrek Kannik, director of the ICDS: “The ICDS and EFPI merged legally five years ago. During this time, Kristi Raik has built a very strong foreign policy research team. It is also a pleasure to note that during this time, the boundaries between the ICDS and EFPI have disappeared, both ICDS and EFPI researchers participate in various projects together. This is why we decided to finalise the merger process, believing that from now on we will be even more efficient.