PhD Filip Dragović is currently working as an expert in the field of internal affairs (Rule of Law) for UNDP Istanbul. Filip Dragovic retired in March 2012 as General Director of the Directorate for European Integration and International Relations, Ministry of Interior, Republic of Croatia (previous position – Assistant Minister). He previously worked in all segments of the border police, including as the Head of Croatia’s Border Police Directorate. He has more than 20 years of police experience and is an expert in border and migration issues and management of EU projects. He holds a PhD in International Relations (EU Enlargement and Border Security) from the University of Zagreb. His experience in the EU integration process is based on the work on Chapter 24 (Head of the Working Group), implementation of European and Schengen Standards in Croatian Police (2004-2011) and strengthening the overall administrative capacity in the Ministry of the Interior. In the last five years, he also helped countries in the region in their implementation process of EU standards through the UNDP Regional Project (SEE countries) as a Regional Advisor. During this period, he assisted in drafting strategic documents: negotiation positions and action plans for Chapter 24, IBM strategies, risk analysis, SALW strategies and sector planning documents. He is the author of several articles in the field of European security policy and illegal migration and one book.

In 2015, he was appointed as a member of the Homeland Security Council, an advisory body to the President of the Republic of Croatia and in November 2017 as a special advisor to the Minister of the Interior.

PhD Robert Mikac, is assistant Professor in the area of Social Sciences, Field of Politics, Subfield International Relations and National Security, Faculty of Political Science University in Zagreb. Head of military study Military Leadership and Management. Employment history: Head of the Sector for civil protection – Commander of civil protection of the Republic of Croatia, Croatian National Protection and Rescue Directorate; Independent Police Inspector in Directorate for European Integration and International Relations, Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia; Military Police Commander, Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Croatia. On his previous positions he participated in: Member of the National commission for the suppression of the proliferation for weapons of mass destruction; Member of governmental working group for a drafting National strategy for combating terrorism; Member of governmental working group for a drafting National security strategy; Member of governmental working group for a drafting National strategy for preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction; Project manager of two international projects, financed by the European Commission; The Republic of Croatia contact point for critical infrastructure protection, the National platform for catastrophe risk reduction and the Hyogo Action plan. Author of 3 books and 40 scientific articles.

Ivica Buconjić is currently working for UNDP Sarajevo as legal expert for harmonization of national legislation with EU acquis. He had a strong political background from Mayer, as a member of Parliament and State secretary in the Ministry of the Interior where he was responsible for adopting and implementing migration legislation (legal, labour and illegal). As Secretary of State at the Ministry of the Interior he directly participated in creation and adoption Migration Policy of the Republic of Croatia 2007/2008, co-ordinated and led to the adoption of the Law on Foreigners Accompanying the EU Acquis, and the related subordinate legislation, co-ordinated co-operation with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Labour on regulating the right to health care, education and employment of migrants, directly co-ordinated and led the activities related to the adoption of the Asylum Act that aligned with EU Acquis, and the related bylaws, directly coordinated the establishment of 2 reception centres for asylum seekers in the Republic of Croatia, and also he coordinated the harmonization of the Law on State Border Control with the Law on Foreigners. Since 2004. until 2011. Ha was a Member of the Government Commission for Human Rights.

Mihael Šprajc is currently working as an expert in UNDP project supporting the Border police in Bosnia and Hercegovina regarding the risk analysis model (drafting the strategic documents, trainings). He used to work in the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia for 22 years and since first of January 2017. He retired with a rank of chief police inspector. During the professional carrier, he used to work as police officer for organized crime in the Organized Crime Department in the police district of Sisacko-Moslavacka; from January 1999- 2010. as a police officer for organized crime in the Criminal Police Directorate, National Police Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime, Organized Crime Service within the Ministry of the interior of the Republic of Croatia in headquarters (officer of the National Police Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime since its foundation in 2008); 2010-2012- Deputy Chief of the Organized Crime Department in the Criminal Police Directorate, National Police Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime; 2012- 1st of January 2017- police officer for organized crime in the Criminal Police Directorate, National Police Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime, Organized Crime Service within the Ministry of the Interior of Croatia in headquarters. Some specific experience: by the decision of the Minister of the Interior he was appointed as deputy of the Head of component I Project CARDS 2004 “Fight against illegal weapons, ammunition and explosive substances trade (in 2007 and 2008); By the decision of the Deputy Police Head, a member of the Operative Group for the V priority of the Strategic Assessment of the 2015/2016 Police Directory “Prevention and mortification of terrorism”; Croatian Europol contact point for gun crime; European Firearms Experts Network contact point; actively participated for Croatia in the foundation of the Group of Firearms Experts of South-East Europe (2013-2015); Croatian Group of Firearms Experts of South-East Europe contact point.

(PhD) Mišo Mudrić is an Assistant Professor at the Department for Maritime and Transport Law. He serves as an arbitrator at the Permanent Arbitration Court at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, in domestic and foreign arbitration. He has obtained a PhD degree at the Faculty of Law, University of Hamburg, being a Scholar of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg. He serves as the Secretary General of the Croatian Association of Insurance Law, being a founder of the Association. He servers as the Vice President of Croatian Maritime Law Association. He is the executive editor of the international scientific and expert journal “The International Transport Law Review”, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb.

He acts as a member of the: Croatian Association of Maritime Law; Working group on the “Reformulation of the Lex Maritima”, Comité Maritime International; Working group on the “Maritime Law for Unmanned Ships“, Comité Maritime International; Working group on the “Systems for Security Practitioners“, European Commission, Migration and Home Affairs Directorate General, Innovation and Industry for Security, nominated expert, Republic of Croatia; and, Executive Committee and Associate, MARSAFENET project, Cost action IS1105.

He has organized and co-organized around 10 international scientific and expert conferences, published over 60 publications (including two author monographies, and two monographies as a chapter author), held lectures at over 40 domestic and international scientific and expert conferences, prepared peer-reviews for a number of domestic and foreign publishers (monographies and journals), acted as a guest editor for domestic publications, and held a number of expert workshops.

Assistant Professor Mudrić holds lectures in the following courses: Maritime and General Transport Law (in Croatian, in English), Carriage of Goods by Sea (in English), Insurance Law (in Croatian, in English), Transport Insurance Law (in Croatian, in English), European Transport Law (in Croatian, in English), Energy Law (in Croatian, in English), and, Private Security Services and Law (in Croatian, in English).

Krunoslav Katić has more than 20 years of experience in working with international organizations, developing, managing and implementing various Human Security projects. He started off in the 1990s supporting the US Army troops as part of peacekeeping operations in Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Following the peaceful integration, he joined the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission in Eastern Croatia where he worked as part of the Police Monitoring Group in charge of introducing Community Policing concept in Croatia and eventually became OSCE Deputy Police Advisor covering Police Administrations Osijek-Baranja and Vukovar-Srijem. In 2008, he joined United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Croatia where he was managing and implementing projects as part of Human Security Portfolio. In particularly, he implemented various Crime Prevention projects and most importantly was in charge of developing and implementing Illegal Weapons Collection activities in Croatia namely “Less Weapons Less Tragedies” campaign which was recognized by the UNDP as one of the most successful ones globally. Later on, he joined the South-east Europe Small Arms Clearinghouse (SEESAC) regional initiative where he worked in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro as a Regional Advisor. Besides Crime Prevention projects, over the last 10 years he has gained extensive experience in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) related activities within UNDP system all across the Southeast Europe and partially Asia. He developed and implemented several Emergency Response projects in Croatia, led the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) training in Serbia and finally, as the International Team Leader, was in charge of the entire PDNA process in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia coordinating activities between UNDP, European Union and the World Bank. Lastly, working as the Regional Technical Advisor in the field of Urban Resilience Networking he developed and managed regional EU funded and UNDP implemented project in the 7 countries/territories of the SEE. He has academic background in Mechanical Engineering, he is EU certified Project Manager and holds a Masters Level PG Certificate from the University of Coventry in United Kingdom specializing in Peace and Conflict Studies.

Jelena Radošević is an ecologist professionally interested in ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR), climate change mitigation and adaptation, and sustainable development with experience working in the civil sector. She graduated in Ecology at the Department of Biology – Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb. During her collage education, she acquired knowledge and understanding of how (eco)systems work and to what extent all components of a system as well as different systems interdepend, especially nature and society. After graduation, one of the courses she took, the Disasters and Ecosystems: Resilience in a Changing Climate created by the Cologne University of Applied Sciences and UNEP, drove her attention to Eco-DRR.

As a Junior Associate in the Society for Sustainable Development Design, one of Croatia’s most respectable green NGOs, she had the opportunity to work with the City of Velika Gorica and its citizens in an EU-funded project Participatory management of natural resources. Within the EU project COMPASS, she was a lecturer in an international course on the ecological conversion of public spaces for 50 unemployed professionals from 5 European countries – chapters: Sustainable Water Management and Sustainable Waste Management. While working as Project Manager for Life Potential in EU project Leaps of knowledge – engaged community and Swiss-Croatian partnership funded project Sustainable Development of the Society starts with Youth, she worked on raising awareness and developing personal skills and initiative among youth, high-school professors, and university professors directed toward sustainable development as change is possible if the community is engaged, and community is engaged if its individuals are. In Life Potential she enriched her professional skills as a lot of emphasis was given to team work, team and organizational management and professional development skills in general. Since 2020 she has been working for the Institute for Security Policies.

In general, she has experience in writing, implementation (including working with target groups, giving workshops and PR) and reporting of local, national and EU projects in diverse sustainable development and humanistic NGOs, as well as in organizing field research and various surveys including the public perception surveys within the IMPETUS project together with Krunoslav Katić and Mišo Mudrić.

Richard J (Rick) Larkin is the former Director of Emergency Management for the City of Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA.

He has over 35 years’ experience in Public Safety as an Emergency Medical Technician/Paramedic, Firefighter, and Emergency Management practitioner in the 16th largest metropolitan area in the United States. He has been involved in Emergency Management (Civil Protection/Crisis Management) program review and support activities in Hong Kong, PRC; Peru, Republic of Croatia and 3 of the British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean. He has been an Associate Member of the Institute for Security Policy since 2018.

His areas of interest and expertise include: Emergency Management and Homeland Security Program Administration, Crisis and Disaster Management; Civil Protection; Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience; National Standards and Accreditation of Emergency Management and Business Continuity programs, Emergency Planning and Preparedness, Incident Management and Emergency Response.

Mr Larkin is a past Chairperson for an International Emergency Management Standard Development Organization (EMAP). He has earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Management and Communication, and a Masters Degree in Public Safety Administration. He is also a contributing author to 3 peer-reviewed textbooks on Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience.

Areas of Expertise

• 30 years of experience as a military officer
• First line leadership at the small, medium and large organizational level
• Integration of military and civilian resources in response to natural disasters
• Strategic planning for disaster response contingencies
• Large scale event security planning and anti-terrorist considerations
• Crisis leadership and staff preparation
• Staffing and managing scalable operations centers
• Technical writing especially in the area of policy development and publication
• Building teams to plan complex operations and missions
• Complex problem solving in ambiguous environments
• Master’s degrees in Strategy and Security Technologies
• Innovative use of emerging security technology in a dynamic technological business environment
• Corporate level cyber security solution application – technological and policy
• Training and mentorship

PhD Goran Krsteski is currently working as a senior police adviser on strategic planning and Integrated Border Management. Goran Krsteski previously 4,5 years worked as a project manager in the Border Security Programme, Police Cooperation Convention for Southeast Europe Secretariat, Institute DCAF Ljubljana, Slovenia. Before that for 8 years as a Program manager, he leaded activities in the frame of the Border Security Programme, Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), Geneva Switzerland. Previously as a deputy head of the Department for border police and head of the Sector for cross-border cooperation he leaded activities in the preparation of the National strategy for the Integrated Border Management, and played key role in the process of establishing the Border police in the Republic of North Macedonia. Goran Krsteski holds a PhD in administrative law and communicology (Internal security, Integrated Border Management, EU and Schengen border-related security and management best practices, recommendations and standards) from the S.s Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. Author of the several scientific articles.