Ramadan Ilazi currently serves as the Head of Research at the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS). He leads the working package 6, on producing counter narratives, in the framework of the Horizon Europe-funded SMIDGE project, which investigates the rise of extremist narratives among middle-aged individuals in Europe. He is also a member of the International Republican Institute’s Western Balkans Task Force on Threats to Democracy. In this role, he has co-authored a paper on Kosovo’s vulnerabilities to malign foreign influence. From 2015 to 2016, Ramadan was Kosovo’s Deputy Minister for European Integration, where he contributed to the development of the national plan for implementing the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union and the European Reform Agenda (ERA) for Kosovo. He has also consulted for organizations such as OECD/SIGMA on public administration reform in Kosovo. Ramadan holds a PhD in Politics and International Relations from Dublin City University and a Master of Letters degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. His recent book, “The European Union and Everyday Statebuilding: The Case of Kosovo,” published by Routledge Studies in Statehood, critically examines the EU’s role and agency in statebuilding interventions.