Ms. Justyna Gotkowska is the Deputy Director and Head of the Security and Defence Department at the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW), a Polish analytical institute based in Warsaw that works for the Polish government. Until 2022, she coordinated the Regional Security Program and previously headed the Security in Northern Europe Project at OSW.

She began her professional career in 2008 as an analyst of German foreign and security policy. Over the years, she has accumulated extensive expertise in regional security and military cooperation in Northern and Central Europe, deterrence and defense of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), security and defense policy of the European Union, as well as transatlantic relations. She also covers Polish security and defense policy. Ms. Gotkowska was a visiting scholar at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. (2022), the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich (2019), and the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies in Oslo (2012). She regularly participates in multinational research projects, including those at Think Visegrad, Estonia’s International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS), and the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). She has authored multiple publications and regularly comments on security policy for Polish and European media. Ms. Gotkowska earned M.A. degrees from the University of Warsaw in Poland and Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen University in Germany.