Robert Ondrejcsák joined as Executive Director of the European Leadership Network (ELN) in March 2025. He is the former Ambassador of Slovakia to the United Kingdom (2020–2025) and State Secretary of the Ministry of Defence of the Slovak Republic in two governments (2010–2012 and 2016–2020). He also served as the director of the Centre for European and North Atlantic Affairs (CENAA) (2007–2010 and 2016–2020), a Bratislava-based international relations and security think tank active in Central Europe, Ukraine, the South Caucasus, and beyond. He is the founder of another security policy think tank, STRATPOL – Strategic Policy Institute (2016).
Previously, Dr. Ondrejcsák was the director of the Institute for Security and Defence Studies (a research centre of the Slovak Ministry of Defence). He also served as a counsellor and deputy chief of mission at the Slovak Embassy in Hungary, as well as a foreign and security policy advisor to the vice-chairman of the Slovak Parliament. Additionally, he worked as an advisor in the NATO Department of the Slovak Ministry of Defence and as an analyst at the Slovak Centre for Strategic Studies.
Simultaneously, he lectured on international security, geopolitics, U.S. foreign policy, NATO and European security at several universities.
He is the author of several books on international relations and security policy, as well as numerous articles and papers. Dr. Ondrejcsák has led many transition and security sector reform projects, activities, and consultancy, focusing on Ukraine and Georgia.
He actively shapes the public debate on foreign policy, security, and defence. He is a strong advocate of Slovakia’s pro-Atlantic and pro-European foreign policy and is actively engaged in supporting freedom, democracy, and human rights.
He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations and an M.A. in Political Science, History, and Philosophy.
Dr. Ondrejcsák is a recipient of the Bundeswehr Cross of Honour in Gold, awarded for his support of European and Transatlantic cooperation. He speaks English, Slovak, and Hungarian, with intermediate proficiency in French and Russian.
