About PSSI

Mission Statement

The mission of the Prague Security Studies Institute is to help safeguard and strengthen the individual freedoms and democratic institutions of the countries in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond. The Institute also seeks to illuminate select unconventional threats emanating from authoritarian governments that challenge the transatlantic alliance and other partners globally, especially in the economic & financial and space domains. PSSI is dedicated to the education and training of new generations of security-minded students and young professionals, including through its programmatic activities and growing academic network in the Czech Republic and abroad.

Message from the Chairman and Co-Founder

Since its inception in early 2002, the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI) has endeavored to serve as a valued resource in the field of security policy and studies. It is also dedicated to identifying and analyzing a range of security-related challenges facing the post-communist states and allied partners worldwide, with a focus on countering economic and financial hybrid warfare and threats to the space domain.

Capitalizing on Prague’s central location and unique history, the Institute has not only become a training and academic hub for talented young Czech students and professionals, but those of the region as well. Its conferences, workshops and roundtables have been addressing topical, 21st century security issues for nearly two decades and have attracted highly respected and well-known speakers and lecturers from across the globe.

The Institute has also taken advantage of the insights and rich experiences of business-statesmen from the private sector who have not only given of their valuable time, but offered their counsel to our graduating Security Scholars and our Charles University Master's Degree graduates. 

To advance its mission, PSSI has established four core programs – our Security Scholars Program, Space Security Program, Economic and Financial Threat Program and  Regional Security Program. These programmatic activities have permitted the Institute to:

  • engage in the security-minded education and training of generations of regional university undergraduate and graduate students (particularly those of Charles University in Prague) under the auspices of its Robinson-Martin Security Scholars Program;

  • establish and sponsor a Masters Degree program in Security Studies at Charles University to serve as a force-multiplier for its indigenous academic courses and attract English-speaking MA candidates from abroad;

  • become a security policy and academic hub where students can interact with high-level current and former policy practitioners from around the world in small group settings;

  • institutionalize the James Q. Whitaker Lecture Series within the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University;

  • convene world-class conferences and roundtables, bolstered by our robust research capabilities in our selected fields;

  • gain exclusive rights to an intelligence software tool called IntelTrak, developed by PSSI principals, that tracks and visually maps all Russian and Chinese transactions globally on a daily basis with data going back 6 years;

  • partner with NATO over the past 15 years in the convening of a NATO Summer School for highly-qualified graduate students from roughly a dozen countries annually; 

  • establish an affiliate organization in Washington D.C., PSSI Washington in 2006, that is a designated tax-exempt 501(c)(3) – the first of its kind for a Czech security-oriented public policy group;

  • Sponsor, along with Charles University, two Ph.D. scholarships at the University (one in Economic and Financial Statecraft and the other in Space Security); and

  • Create a Cyber Security Academy that meets annually to hear from luminaries in this burgeoning field.

As we go forward, we will continue to benefit from the innovative ideas and recommendations of our many generous supporters and donors. Although our mission is clear, PSSI prides itself in maintaining an open architecture that permits us to address promptly breaking developments in the global security environment and make the necessary programmatic adjustments to do so. We welcome and respect a wide spectrum of views and opinions in the area of security policy, while remaining committed to our underlying philosophy of „Peace through Strength“.

 

Roger W. Robinson Jr., PSSI Chairman and Co-Founder