Rihards Bambals

Rihards Bambals is currently a PhD candidate in Political Sciences at the University of Latvia. He is completing a doctoral dissertation on the comparison of society’s resilience to disasters in different countries based on their levels of human security. Previously, Rihards graduated from the University of Latvia, obtaining BA and MA degrees in Political Sciences, specialising in International Politics. He has also studied at Brussels Free University (Belgium). In 2013, for the excellence of his research, Rihards received the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship (SYLFF) from the Tokyo Foundation. His main academic interests are: the development of the human security concept (and the measurements of security); disaster research; security and foreign policy analysis (focused on the Euro-Atlantic area, the EU and NATO); and modern warfare. Parallel to his academic work Rihards is a career diplomat, working at the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is currently responsible for NATO and European security policy issues.