GLOBSEC
Vulnerability
Index

is an in-depth research activity that examines the vulnerabilities of eight Central European and Western Balkan countries towards the Kremlin’s and Beijing’s influence. This vulnerability is addressed in five key dimensions: public attitudes, political landscape, public administration, information landscape and civic and academic space.

Authors

Holds an MA in EU Foreign Policy from the University of Leuven in Belgium. In research, she focuses on the impact of information operations and social media on a democratic society, cognitive security, and public sector strategic communication. Has led several international research, awareness-raising, and capacity-building projects aimed at building societal and state resilience. Gained experience in the advertising sector and EU policy-making, having worked in institutions in Brussels, Belgium. More here.

Holds an MA in Political Science with Specialization in Research Methodology and Social Analysis from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. Since 2016 she has led research on information operations and hybrid threats, and capacity-building projects focusing on societal resilience, vulnerabilities of public administration, and strategic communication. In her previous capacities, she worked for the European Commission and Transparency International Slovakia. More here.

Holds a First-Class BA degree in Arabic & Russian Civilization from the University of Leeds, and an MA in International Relations from the University of York, United Kingdom. In her research activities, she focuses on malign efforts to undermine democratic societies, strategic communication, and internet governance. She has led research projects on the impact of disinformation campaigns on electoral processes in Europe, and she coordinates the Alliance for Healthy Infosphere. More here.

Sincere thanks to Michal Kortiš, our project coordinator, for co-authoring content on this website and coordinating the whole process.

Centre for Democracy
and Resilience, GLOBSEC

analysts involved

Project
partners

GLOBSEC Vulnerability Index is a result of the work of eight partnering organisations with GLOBSEC in lead.

View partners

Key
advisors

Received his PhD in Political Science from University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. He is an assistant professor at HSE University, Russia; as well as a research fellow at the International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development and a project manager for the Varieties of Democracy Project. His research interests include post-Soviet politics, identity politics, statistical techniques for measuring difficult concepts, and survey research. More here.

Associate Professor at North Dakota State University and a co-developer of the Digital Society Project, Unified Democracy Scores, and Scythe Statistical Library, and a project manager for the Varieties of Democracy Project. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Illinois, USA, and specializes in statistical tools designed to answer questions about political institutions, party organization, digital politics, and the political economy of development. More here.

Senior Fellow at CSD and Director of Vitosha Research. Since 1991 he has participated in the design and implementation of a number of social and market research projects in the fields of social and economic behavior, social justice, corruption and organized crime, and crime victimization, including the Corruption Monitoring System, National Crime Survey, Survey of the Grey Sector, Eurobarometer and Flash Eurobarometer Surveys in Bulgaria. Dr. Stoyanov also works as Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of National and World Economy, Sofia. More here.

Countries
covered

Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia

8,000

respondents in public opinion polls

The Index
is a result of multi-method research combining:

Expert survey with at least 20 experts per country

Expert interviews conducted by analysts in each country

Desk research conducted by analysts in each country

Public opinion polls conducted on a representative sample of 1000+ respondents per country

Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index

World Press Freedom Index

Selected variables and subindices of Variables of Democracy project

Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index

The scale

On a 1-100 scale (where 1 = most resilient and 100 = most vulnerable), it reveals each country’s resilience level in the analyzed dimensions and identifies gaps and soft spots.

355

experts surveyed

Downloads

Explore the data in depth. Download the complete Vulnerability Index report, specific country chapters, white papers with recommendations, methodology, or data used.

View downloads

focus group discussions with 320 participants

Project was financially supported by the US Department of State’s Global Engagement Center.