The Board of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs has agreed that Director Teija Tiilikainen can resign on her request on 7 October in order to move her new position as the director of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. Dr Mika Aaltola, who the Board appointed as the director of the Institute for a five-year term 2020-2024 on 11 September, will start in his new position on 7 October.
Mika Aaltola has worked as the Programme Director of the Global Security research programme at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs since 2011. His areas of expertise are global governance, major power relations, new forms of power politics and Finnish foreign and security policies. Dr Aaltola is a professor (part-time) at the Tallinn University since 2012 and he holds the rank of docent from the University of Tampere. He has been a visiting researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (fall 2013) and at the CERI Sciences Po (fall 2010) and a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota (2006-2008). He obtained his PhD in social sciences from the University of Tampere in 1999.
The director is responsible for the management, development and performance of the Institute.