Biljana Vankovska

Ph.D. Political Science, Department of Political Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Skopje, 1992 MA Political Science, Department for Political Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Skopje, 1988 BA Law, Department of Political and Administrative Studies, Faculty of Law, University of Skopje, 1982

BILJANA VANKOVSKA is a full professor of international relations and peace studies at the Institute for Security, Defense, and Peace, Faculty of Philosophy, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Macedonia. Since the mid-1990s, she has been a pioneer in peace and conflict studies in the country. Her research interests span international security, peace and conflict analysis, civil-military relations, transitional justice, and Balkan affairs. A prolific academic, her works are accessible on platforms such as Academia.edu, ResearchGate, and the UKIM repository.

Vankovska has held several research and teaching positions, including as a Guest Senior Research Fellow at the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute (COPRI) from 1997 to 2000, as faculty staff at the European Peace University (EPU) in Stadtschlaining, Austria (2000–2014), and Senior Fellow at the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) (2001–2002). She is also a member of the Global Governance Forum, specifically within the Working Group on Weapons Governance, convened by Professor Richard Falk.

She has been an Associate of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research (TFF) since 1999. Additionally, she serves as a nominator for the Seoul Peace Prize and was among the first signatories of the 2023 Declaration of Conscience and Concern of Global Intellectuals on Gaza Genocide and TFF’s Gaza Genocide Statement.

Currently, Vankovska heads the Global Changes Center, a research unit within the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje (Global Changes Center).

She has served three terms as editor-in-chief of the international scholarly journal Security Dialogues and remains a member of several editorial boards, including the Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, Journal of International Relations and Development, and Voprosi Politologii.

For nearly three decades, Vankovska has been a leading columnist and public intellectual in Macedonia and the broader region of former Yugoslavia. Recently, she became a regular contributor to Guancha, one of China’s most popular online portals.

In 2024, she was a presidential candidate representing the political party The Left. She advocated for Macedonia’s peaceful neutrality and active participation in the emerging multipolar world system.