Jan Daniel

Jan Daniel specializes in the study of peace, security, and armed conflict in Europe and the Middle East. He earned his Ph.D. in International Relations from Charles University, Prague, where he wrote a dissertation on the politics of peacekeeping practice in Lebanon. Jan joined UNYP in 2023 and he also works as a Senior Researcher at the Institute of International Relations Prague. At the IIR, he is the Head of the Centre for the Study of Global Regions and one of the editors of the Czech Journal of International Relations. His academic research is guided by the attention to how ideas of global peace and security play out in the local practice and how they intersect with local politics. He has been involved in academic research projects on UN peacekeeping, preventing violent extremism in Europe and the Middle East as well as understanding the policies aimed at tackling disinformation and hybrid warfare in Europe and the Czech Republic. Jan has been also involved in a number of policy advice projects pursued in cooperation with the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NATO Strategic Communication Centre of Excellence, and others. In these projects, he researched among others humanitarian issues connected to the Syrian refugee crisis, UN peace operations, and Russian strategic communication campaigns in the Middle East and beyond. He has been a visiting researcher at the European University Institute, Orient Institut Beirut, and the American University of Beirut. He has been regularly teaching on Middle East security issues, the politics of Lebanon and Syria, critical security studies, and politics of disinformation at Charles University and as a guest lecturer.