Jānis Karlsbergs is the senior policy and publications manager in the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence based in Riga, Latvia. In his private capacity, Jānis serves as the Chairman of the Board of the Latvian Transatlantic Organisation (NGO).Throughout his career, he has held various senior management positions within the Ministry of Defence of Latvia, most notably as Undersecretary of State for Policy, Undersecretary for Defence Planning and Undersecretary for Armaments. In his diplomatic capacity, he has served as Defence Councillor to Latvia’s mission at the OSCE and later as the Head of the Latvian Ministry of Defence Representation to NATO and the EU in Belgium. During Brussels time, he also acted as Latvia’s Special Advisor to Georgia on defence reforms and NATO integration, and co-chaired the NATO Committee on Proliferation for a year.
Jānis has studied in the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Switzerland, and holds a Master of Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Latvia. In addition to his native Latvian, he speaks English, Russian, German, and French.