Andris Sprūds has served as Latvia’s Minister of Defence since September 2023. In 2022 he was elected to Parliament from the political party PROGRESĪVIE, and was appointed as Chairmain of the European Affairs Committee. He has held the position of professor at the Faculty of European Studies, Department of Political Science of the Riga Stradins University. Andris Sprūds has an MA in Central European History from the CEU in Budapest, Hungary and in International Relations from the University of Latvia. He has obtained a PhD in Political Science from Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Andris Sprūds has been a visiting student and scholar at Oxford, Uppsala, Columbia and Johns Hopkins University, as well as the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and Japan's Institute of Energy Economics. His research interests have focused on energy security and policy in the Baltic Sea region, the domestic and foreign policy of post-Soviet countries, and transatlantic relations.