Antonia Mayer is a double Master’s degree graduate in Political Science at Rutgers University, USA and the University of Konstanz, Germany. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Politics and Public Administration. During her undergraduate studies, she studied in both Moscow and Prague, as well as her native Germany.

Antonia held several fellowships including the German-American Fulbright and the Estonian Archimedes among others.

Her interests include Security Studies, European Politics and International Relations.

Alina is currently pursuing a postgraduate degree in Security, Intelligence and Strategic Studies. She holds a BSc in Psychology which included a focus on the Psychology of Conflict, Risk and Safety. She is passionate about various aspects of international security and governance. Her areas of interest include arms control and non-proliferation, particularly from a gender perspective, as well as cyber and hybrid threats and the role of emerging technologies in democracies, international security and conflicts.

Brendon Karic is a German-American M.A. student of Political Science at the University of Münster. Holding a B.A. in Social Sciences and Political Science, his research focuses on U.S. foreign policy, energy security and nuclear deterrence. He has work experience in the private energy sector, as well as in research and has been working at the Institute for Political Science in Münster since 2022. Currently, he is preparing and researching for his M.A. thesis on U.S. nuclear deterrence policy.

Andrea studied Political Science at LMU in Munich and currently she is completing her master in European Union Studies in Salzburg. Areas of interest are EU’s external affairs with a focus on European Foreign and Security Policy and international relations issues.

Ivan Marić is a career diplomat, currently posted at the Croatian Embassy to Germany in Berlin. He is passionate about the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU enlargement and Southeastern Europe. Previously, he served as an adviser in the cabinet of the Croatian Foreign Minister. During the German EU Presidency in 2020, he was an exchange officer and spent six months at the German Foreign Office where he worked on EU enlargement. He has an MA in politics and conflict studies at the University of Augsburg and has studied German politics and economics at Humboldt University Berlin.

Trained as a political scientist at both Radboud University in Nijmegen and Friedrich Schiller University in Jena I combine my interest in security politics with my strong believe in a United European Federation. I am convinced that we have to learn from each other to discover new ways of creating a secure future for even more people in Europe and around the globe.

Bingyu is completing her MA in Statistics and Data Science at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and her BA in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology and Pharmaceutical Bioprocess Technology at Technical University of Munich. She is interested in applying operations research in the public and military sectors.

James Hillhouse Sallembien is a Research Assistant in The German Marshall Fund of the United States’s Paris office. His areas of interest and research include the US-France bilateral relations, European defense, NATO, and international security more broadly. His additional responsibilities include convening, program coordination, and fundraising. Prior to joining GMF, he served in several local US electoral campaigns and worked at the European Commission in France. James holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a master’s degree in European public affairs from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Maryia Ditchkowska is a junior lecturer at Leiden University, teaching BSc Security Studies. Her primary interests lie within the fields of European politics and the future of warfare, with a particular interest in the future of the Eastern European region.

Jules has an MA in Science and International Security from the War Studies Department at King’s College London and an MA in Strategic Studies from the University of Granada. His research focuses on emerging technologies and international security, with a particular focus on the governance of artificial intelligence. Jules is currently a junior lecturer in the Bachelor of Security Studies at Leiden University.

Marko is a student pursuing a Master’s degree in law at the University of Vienna and a BA of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Economics and Business in Vienna. Besides working as a Paralegal in a Viennese Law Firm, he has been involved in various volunteer activities such as at Politics & Education (PolEdu), the Austrian Students Union (ÖH) and the Bled Strategic Forum. He is passionate about European Law and the European Foreign and Security Policy.

Currently completing an MA in Contemporary European Studies at the University of Bath and the Humboldt-University of Berlin. Interested in the political conflict in the Middle East and planning to write thesis on security and foreign policy of the EU in that region. At the moment, working at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Berlin,  gaining practical experience in a political working environment.

Lorenzo is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in International Security at Sciences Po, focusing on EU Common Security and Defense Policy, Transatlantic Relations in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, and the new security challenges posed by Emerging and Disrupting Technologies. Lorenzo earned his Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Ca' Foscari University of Venice, graduating cum laude. During his time there, he gained a solid philosophical background and acquired the skillset to apply multidisciplinary and critical thinking to global security affairs.

Lukas Baake studied international relations, history, philosophy, and musicology in Berlin, Paris, and London. He recently completed a research stay at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies in Tbilisi and is deputy editor-in-chief of the media outlet Lossi 36. His main areas of interest are the EU’s Neighbourhood and Enlargement policies as well as Russian foreign and domestic politics.

Teresa Marten studied Political Science in Dresden, Buenos Aires, and Osnabrück and holds a Master's degree in Democratic Governance and Civil Society. Her interest and expertise lie in international politics, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean as a region, security policy, democratic transformation, and multilateral regimes such as G20, G7, and the UN. As a freelance project and event manager for the public sector, she manages conferences, workshops, and other high-level events

A Master student of Political and Social Sciences and History in Wuerzburg. Currently writing his master’s thesis on asymmetric warfare in symmetric wars, as we can see in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Hopes to pursue a PhD in the field of Security Studies.

Lena (she/her) is an MA student at the University of Osnabrück, where she studies „Democratic Governance and Civil Society“. Further, she volunteers as co-head of the program „Gender and International Politics“ at the grassroots-think tank Polis180. Writing her master’s thesis about feminist foreign policy, Lena is especially interested in feminist International Relations, foreign and security policy, gender and queer studies and politics, as well as intersectional feminisms.

After his undergraduate degree in aeronautical engineering, Martín León Garcia Garcia is currently engaged in a master in security studies, as he intends to combine technical and policy skills for a more secure, prosperous and open European Union. This motivation matured over the years and was reinforced while working in the industry during and after his undergrad. In parallel he lived in five European countries, that gave him the opportunity to be open and flexible, while remaining inquisitive.

Emma is originally from Alaska. She currently studies International Governance and Diplomacy at the Paris School of International Affairs. Her specialization is Global Risks, her hobby is negotiation. Emma's recent research focuses on modern society and nuclear war narratives. She's still figuring out where she wants to work in the future, but one thing's for sure: she wants to be in the room, at the table.

Mohammad HAMAD is a psychotherapist and researcher in political science and psychology. He was born in 1989 and currently resides in Nantes, France, but originally from Lebanon. Since 2015, I have been working as a psychotherapist at the French school of psycho-organic analysis (ALAPO) and was previously employed at the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) in Lebanon. With extensive experience in public administration and healthcare, I am currently focused on researching geopolitical issues and energy challenges.

Sandra is a research fellow and PhD candidate at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. She holds a BA in History (LMU) and a MA in Peace Research and International Politics (University of Tübingen). Her research interests include EU foreign and security policy, international law and the Middle East.

Patrick holds a BA in Political Science and History from the University of Göttingen. He examined the European Neighbourhood Policy in the context of his bachelor’s thesis. Patrick is currently pursuing his Master of International Affairs at the Hertie School in Berlin and focuses on Sino-American competition, deterrence, and nuclear weapons. Additionally, he has worked for one member of Germany’s National Parliament for more than a year and previously spent eleven months at the Bayer Corporation’s Department for Corporate Public Affairs Germany/EU.

Ramiz holds an MA degree in European and East Asian Governance from the University of Trier, Germany. He is currently working on his PhD research proposal. His areas of expertise include Global Governance, European integration, Public Policy, and International Affairs. Additionally, he volunteers for human rights advocacy.

Ágata Swiatkiewicz is Responsible for NATO and bilateral relations at idD Portugal Defence, further representing Portugal at the NATO Industrial Advisory Group as Deputy Head of Delegation. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from the University of Lisbon and a Master of Science in Global Cooperation and Security from the University of Birmingham.

Marguerite is doing a Joint PhD in Human Rights and Political Science at the Universities of Palermo and Salzburg (2020-2024), where she works on the administrative governance of the EU migration and asylum policy and its impact on the fundamental rights of migrants. She is currently doing a visiting fellowship at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, and prior to this she was a visiting fellow at Maastricht University. She obtained a Master’s degree in European Studies from the University Paris 8 in 2018, and a Master in Human Rights and Democratisation from the Global Campus of Human Rights in 2020.