Robert Adam is a diplomat, political scientist, and op-ed author. He holds a PhD in political science from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) with a dissertation on populism. Academically trained in France (École Normale Supérieure, Sciences Po, Sorbonne) and Romania (University of Bucharest), he is a research associate at the ULB CEVIPOL (Centre for the Study of Politics) and a guest lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest.
His book Două veacuri de populism românesc (Two centuries of Romanian Populism) was published by the major Romanian house Humanitas in 2018. A French version is due for the last quarter of 2021.
In the Romanian diplomatic service, he was posted in Paris and Brussels and he currently works for the European Union. He is regularly consulted by Romanian and international media (Belgium, France, Republic of Moldova). Mr. Adam is a contributor to Romanian online media PressOne and he publishes in peer-reviewed journals in the UK, France, Belgium and Romania.

Professor Chris Alden teaches International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and is Director of LSE IDEAS. He is a Research Associate with South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA).

He is author/co-author of numerous books, including Apartheid’s Last Stand – the Rise and Fall of the South African Security State (Palgrave 1996), Mozambique and the Construction of the New African State (Palgrave 2003), South Africa’s Post-Apartheid Foreign Policy (Adelphi Paper IISS 2003), China in Africa (Zed 2007), Land, Liberation and Compromise in Southern Africa (Palgrave/Macmillan 2009) The South and World Politics (Palgrave 2010), Foreign Policy Analysis – New Approaches 2nd edition (Routledge 2017), and co-editor of China and Mozambique: from Comrades to Capitalist (Johannesburg: Jacana 2014), China Returns to Africa (Hurst 2008), China and Africa – Building Peace and Security Cooperation on the Continent (Palgrave 2017), New Directions in Africa-China Studies (Routledge 2019) as well as having written numerous articles in internationally recognised journals.

Professor Alden has held fellowships at Cambridge University, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo; Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto; Ecole Normale Superieure (Cachan), Paris; CERI, Paris; and University of Pretoria.

Roxana Allen is an experienced international security affairs and cybersecurity professional in Washington DC.
She has a 20-year background in policy and civil-military cooperation, economic development, capacity building and partnership development, peacekeeping, and advice to top level international policy makers.
She was a NATO ACT Innovative Thinking Experimentation Fellow, a CSIS scholar on the Future of Missile Defense and NATO, and recently worked in AI technology innovation, data and cyber intelligence lab validations on countering terrorism and cybercrime, ransomware attacks and hybrid warfare.
Over 10 years of being associated with the US Army, she was in multiple military tours in Italy, Norfolk, Washington DC, Korea, Germany, where she implemented capacity building activities with the Southern European Task Force. Prior to moving to Washington DC, she worked for 14 years as a career diplomat in security cooperation, security policy and defense institution building, Black Sea and Caspian Sea initiatives, Partnership for Peace, NATO enlargement and EU accession. Her extensive and varied career with multinational institutions has included leadership roles as a Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Romania on Euro-Atlantic Integration, Head of the Field Office Trebinje with OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chief of Policy, Research and Trend Analysis Group for the President of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies, Head of the Cabinet for the Secretary of State and Presidential Spokesperson. At field level, she worked in crisis operations management, stabilization and post conflict reconstruction efforts with the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina implementing the Dayton Peace Agreement in Western Balkans, Council of Europe in crime prevention, ODIHR in election security, UN Security Council in arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation, World Bank in the Middle East and North Africa, OECD in building integrity in Eurasia and the Caucasus, and NATO’s Partnership for Peace in Romania. She published lessons learned from Bosnia and Herzegovina at 7 after Dayton: Faltering Step in Peacekeeping, Adapting NATO: From Institution Building in Europe to Capacity Building Beyond Europe, and co-authored NATO Enlargement: Romania and the Southern Dimension of the Alliance, The Rights of National Minorities, UN Fundamental Documents in International Law and International Relations.
She holds a Master’s in International Economics, Strategic Studies and American Foreign Policy from Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, a Master’s in Law and International Relations, a Bachelor of Science in International Commerce.

He is a professor of political science and international relations. Having received bachelor of arts degree in international relations from Bilkent University, he has pursued his doctoral studies in the department of political science at Vienna University and has received his PhD in political science at Duisburg-Essen University in 2007. He is familiar with subjects such as European Union, Middle Eastern politics, Turkish politics and foreign policy, civil-military relations and minority rights among others. He has co-authored a book entitled "Religious Minorities in Turkey: Alevi, Armenians, and Syriacs and the Struggle to De-Securitize Religious Freedom". He has taught at various universities in Turkey and abroad.

Research Manager at SpecialEurasia, holds a PhD in Islamic History from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, a master’s degree in Peacebuilding Management and International Relations from Pontifical University San Bonaventura, a master’s degree in History from the University of Rome Tor Vergata. He has published several academic papers and researches on geopolitics, conflicts, and jihadist propaganda in the post-Soviet space and the Middle East.

Guy Boekenstein has served in the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, is a member of various Indonesian diaspora associations in Australia and has worked in the Indo-Pacific region for more than twenty years in both government and the private sector.

Managing Director at SpecialEurasia. Research Manager of the Energy & New Technology Department at CeSEM – Centro Studi Eurasia Mediterraneo. Geopolitical Intelligence analyst for European Affairs Magazine and Notizie Geopolitiche. International affairs specialist and political analyst who has supported private and public institutions in the decision-making process, providing reports, risk assessments, and consultancy. She has travelled in Europe, the Middle East, South-East Asia, and the post-Soviet space assessing the domestic dynamic and situations and creating a network of local contacts. She contributes to Italian and foreign media agencies, magazines, and think tanks.

Anna Borshchevskaya is a senior fellow at The Washington Institute, focusing on Russia's policy toward the Middle East. In addition, she is a contributor to Oxford Analytica and a fellow at the European Foundation for Democracy. She was previously with the Atlantic Council and the Peterson Institute for International Economics. A former analyst for a U.S. military contractor in Afghanistan, she has also served as communications director at the American Islamic Congress. Her analysis is published widely in publications such as Foreign Affairs, The Hill, The New Criterion, and Middle East Quarterly. Until recently, she conducted translation and analysis for the U.S. Army's Foreign Military Studies Office and its flagship publication, Operational Environment Watch, and wrote a foreign affairs column for Forbes. She is the author of the February 2016 Institute monograph, Russia in the Middle East. She holds a doctorate from George Mason University.

Dr. Chester CABALZA is the Founder and President at the International Development and Security Cooperation (IDSC). Formerly, he was the Vice President for the Center of Research and Strategic Studies at the Development Academy of the Philippines and Associate Professor at the National Defense College of the Philippines. He teaches in the graduate program at the University of the Philippines. He is a Fellow at the National Defense University in Beijing, China and the United States’ State Department.

Denis Cenușă is a political scientist who currently works as Researcher at the Institut für Politikwissenschaft, Justus-Liebig-Universität (Germany), where he conducts the PhD research on the EU’s impact on state resilience in Eastern Europe, with a special focus on Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine.
He is affiliated to the Think-Tank “Expert-Grup” in Moldova, where he coordinates the Energy Security Department. Between 2015 and 2020, he acted as national team co-coordinator of the project “Understanding the Association Agreements between the EU and Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia”, implemented by Center for European Policy Studies (Brussels), financed by the Swedish Government. Since 2015, he is principal columnist at “Info-Prim” News Agency in Moldova, where he published more than 200 analytical articles investigating European integration in Eastern Europe.
Between 2016-2019, he was part of the coordinating team that drafted the Eastern Partnership Index.
Over the last 10 years, Denis authored and co-authored numerous analytical articles, research papers, and policy reports. His fields of expertise comprise good governance in post-Soviet space, EU external governance in Eastern Europe and Russia, European energy and visa policies. Denis has developed strong networks with the EU institutions and the expert and civil society representatives from Eastern Europe.
Together with Michael Emerson from CEPS Brussels, Denis co-edited the two editions of “Deepening EU-Moldova relations: What, Why and How?”, published in 2016 and 2018. Another book that he co-edited with a team of others led by Steven Blockmans is: “The Struggle for Good Governance in Eastern Europe”.
He obtained a Master diplomas in European Interdisciplinary Studies at the College of Europe Natolin (2013) and in Political Sciences at the State University of Moldova (2007). In 2014, Denis graduated from the Advanced Program on EU Law and Economics at Riga Graduate School of Law.

Alexis CHAPELAN is a grad student at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest. He has a master’s degree from Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes de Sciences Sociales. The subject of his thesis is Ultra-conservative Christian Europe. His fields of interest are related to the far-right policy, populism and Conservative Europe. His doctoral thesis coordinated by professor, PHD Florin Turcanu, deals with cultural wars and contemporary populism (chapelan.alexis@fspub.unibuc.ro).

Ambassador Professor Dumitru CHICAN graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Languages - University of Bucharest and majored in Arabic. He has a post-graduate degree in Arabic from the University of Cairo - Egypt. He was an Arabic interpreter, diplomat and an advisor on the Middle East. He is an associate professor, a published author in this field, the founder of the Arab-Romanian Friendship League, a regional expert for the Geostrategic Pulse magazine as well as an editor for the Romanian press agency “RADOR” (Radio Orient/Radio Observer).

Dr. Selçuk Çolakoğlu received his BA from the Department of International Relations at Ankara University, his MA from the Department of International Relations at Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, and completed his PhD in the Department of International Relations at Ankara University in 2003. He worked as a visiting professor of the Department of Turkish Studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) in Seoul, South Korea (1999–2001). He became an associate professor of international relations in 2008 in Turkey. He served as the Vice Dean of Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences in Nazilli (2006–2007), the Chair of Department of International Relations (2008–2012) and the Director of Graduate School of Social Sciences (2011–2012) at Adnan Menderes University in Aydın, Turkey. He became a professor of international relations at Yıldırım Beyazıt University in Ankara in 2013. Dr. Çolakoğlu was a visiting research fellow at the Korea Foundation in Seoul in 2007, The Near East and South Asia (NESA) Center for Strategic Research at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. in 2013, and the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) in Sejong, in 2015. He was an advisor for the Center for Strategic Research (SAM) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey (2011–2013) and Vice-President of the International Strategic Research Organization (USAK) in Ankara (2013–2016). Dr. Çolakoğlu is currently Director of the Turkish Center for Asia Pacific Studies (APAC) in Ankara, Turkey.

Ioana Constantin-Bercean is an international affair professional with solid academic experience and has worked abroad for over a decade. She is currently PhD candidate in International Relations at UBB - Cluj-Napoca and PhD candidate in Sociology, at University of Bucharest. She is the author of numerous articles in specialized publications dealing with topics related to the Middle East, and about the Islamic Republic of Iran in particular. She has studied or collaborated on various projects as an associate researcher at various Western institutions: International Institute for Peace (Vienna, Austria), Diplomatische Akademie Wien (Austria), Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non‑Proliferation (Austria) and Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C. (USA). She is fluent in English, French and Spanish, and speaks Farsi, Arabic and Italian conversationally. Fields of interest: political sociology, international relations, foreign policy, security studies, information analysis. Currently she is Middle East expert on foreign policy and non-proliferation at “Informational Warfare and Strategic Communication Laboratory” at “Ion I. C. Brătianu Institute of Political Science and International Relations of the Romanian Academy”.

Vladimir-Adrian Costea is a grad student at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest, under the supervision of prof. PHD Georgeta Ghebrea. (e-mail: costea.vladimir-adrian@fspub.unibuc.ro). He has published articles on clemency and the state of occupancy of Romanian prisons in magazines such as Studia. Romanian Political Science Review, Revista
de drept constituțional (Constitutional Law Magazine), Revista Română de Sociologie (The Romanian Sociology Magazine) and Revista Polis (Polis Magazine).

Christopher M. Davidson has long-standing research interests in the comparative politics of the Gulf states, and was previously a reader at Durham University and an assistant professor at Zayed University, UAE. His publications include 'From Sheikhs to Sultanism: Statecraft and Authority in Saudi Arabia and the UAE'; 'Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success'; and 'Abu Dhabi: Oil and Beyond'.

Sr. Lead Expert NATO, director of the Center for International Relations and Lobby European Institute for Multidisciplinary Research. Sr. Excellence Lead Expert, Political Consultant & Regional Manager Eastern Europe.

He is the Consul General of Romania in Los Angeles (USA). A career diplomat, with a degree in law, in foreign languages and a PhD in management, he previously headed the Consular Section of the Romanian Embassy in Rome, the National Centre for Diplomatic and Service Passports within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Romanian Consulate in Castellon de la Plana - Spain and the Consulate General of Romania in Trieste - Italy. He worked as a teacher at the Romanian Diplomatic Institute, at the Consular Training and Training Centre of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and represented Romania in expert committees of the European Council and the European Commission in Brussels. He has published papers on consular regulation, emergency and disaster management, and security studies. Specialist and connoisseur of English, Italian, Spanish and French languages.

Ali El Aallaoui is an analyst and researcher in Geopolitics based in Western Sahara. He holds a PhD in International Law and International Relations.

Muhammad Faisal is Director for East Asia and China at Margalla Institute of International Affairs, Islamabad. Previously he was associated with China-Pakistan Study Centre, Islamabad. He has been a Visiting Fellow at Stimson Center, Washington, D.C., and Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey. He earned an M.Phil in Security Studies from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. His research interests include great-power politics with particular reference to conflict and cooperation in Southern Asia. He can be reached at mfaisal89@live.com

Historian and diplomat.
Born 25th of November 1950, in Filea de Jos, Cluj county. Highschool and university in Cluj-Napoca. From 2000, doctoral degree in history at „Babeş-Bolyai” University, on the subject „The beginning of the diplomatic relations between Romania and Hungary, 1918-1921”.
Professional experience – teacher of history and geography, main researcher at the Center for Transylvanian Studies, Cluj-Napoca, diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with long-term missions in Budapest (1987-1989), Stockholm (1991-1994) and again Budapest (2000-2005). Between 2006-2013, diplomatic counselor in the Department of Diplomatic Archives and between 2014-2018, associated professor at „Babeş-Bolyai” University, Faculty of History, Department of International Relations and Contemporary History. Currently, retired.
Publications: România şi Ungaria la început de secol XX, Editura Presa Universitară Clujeană, Cluj-Napoca, 2002, with an English edition, Romania and Hungary at the beginning of the XX-th Century, Institutul Cultural Român – Centrul de Studii Transilvane, Cluj-Napoca, 2003, co-authored books of diplomatic documents, published studies and articles in: Studia UBB, Banatica, Dosarele Istoriei, Magazin Istoric, Transylvanian Review, etc.

Dr. Güngör served in ISAF mission in Afghanistan in 2010-2011. He served as International Relations advisor of the Chief of Turkish General Staff during 2008-2011. He was the Chief of Staff of the Centre of Excellence Defence against Terrorism (COEDAT) during the years 2012-2014. In 2014-2015, he served as the political advisor of Turkish Army Commander. He retired from the Turkish Army in 2015 as Senior Colonel.
He is currently an Associate Professor of International Relations in Başkent University and Director of the School of Foreign Languages.
He teaches at Başkent University, Military Academy Partnership for Peace Training Centre, Centre of Excellence Defence against Terrorism and the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Diplomatic Academy.
He is married with two children.

Zlatko Hadžidedić is the Founder and Director of the Center for Nationalism Studies, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was Associate Professor at the American University in the Emirates in Dubai, UAE, Assistant Professor at the Sarajevo School of Science and Technology, Bosnia-Herzegovina. He received a PhD degree from the University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Political Science, an MPhil degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science and his MA from the Central European University, Budapest. His book Forced to be Free. The Paradoxes of Liberalism and Nationalism was published in 2012. His forthcoming book Why Capitalism Generates Nationalism is going to be published soon.

Dr. Daniel S. Hamilton is the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Professor and directs the Foreign Policy Institute’s “The United States, Europe, and World Order” Program at Johns Hopkins SAIS. He was the Founding Director of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University.
He is the Director of the Atlantic Basin Initiative, a network of African, European, South, Central and North American Eminent Persons, research institutes and private sector leaders that explores the changing dynamics among the four continents of the Atlantic Basin with regard to energy, economic growth and human development, values and security. He is a leading member of the Jean Monnet Network on Atlantic Studies and a member of the advisory board of the Atlantic Dialogues, sponsored by the OCP Center in Morocco.
Dr. Hamilton testifies regularly before the U.S. Congress and European parliaments, and is a regular commentator for European and U.S. media. He served as host of The Washington Post/Newsweek International’s online discussion feature "Next Europe" and as faculty mentor for The Atlantic magazine’s content partnership with SAIS. Since 2005 he has coordinated a network of German, U.S. and, since 2017, Chinese media editors, together with the Robert Bosch Foundation.
Full bio at https://www.fpi.sais-jhu.edu/daniel-hamilton

Major General (retired) Volodymyr Havrylov served as Defense Attaché at the Ukrainian Embassy to the United States in 2015-2018, Romania in 2010-2012 and the United Kingdom in 2002-2007. He is currently a Director of the Veterans Dozen Foundation.

Monika Hohlmeier was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2009. She is the current chair of the Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) and serves additionally as a member of the Committee on Budget (BUDG) as well as a substitute member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE). She was Co-rapporteur for the Special Committee on Terrorism until 2018. Before joining the European Parliament, Monika Hohlmeier served as State Secretary in the Bavarian Ministry for Education and Culture between 1993 and 1998 followed by her announcement as Bavarian Minister for Education and Culture between 1998 and 2005.

Achim HURRELMANN (Dipl.-Pol. University of Hamburg, 2000; Dr. rer. pol. University of Bremen, 2004) is a Professor of Political Science. He is Co-Director (with Joan DeBardeleben) of the Centre for European Studies (CES), a Carleton University Research Centre focused on European affairs. He is cross-appointed to the Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (EURUS).
Achim’s scholarly work focuses on the politics of the European Union. He is particularly interested in political discourses about European integration (in parliaments, the media, and among citizens), democracy and legitimacy in the EU, as well as Canada-Europe relations. With Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly and Amy Verdun, he has published European Union Governance and Policy Making: A Canadian Perspective (University of Toronto Press 2018), the first textbook on EU politics focused explicitly on a Canadian readership. His research articles have appeared in some of the leading journals in the field, including European Journal of Political Research, West European Politics, Journal of European Public Policy, and Journal of European Integration.
Achim has been awarded a number of research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and other granting agencies. In cooperation with Petra Dolata, Patrick Leblond, and Frédéric Mérand, he is currently working on a project that examines “The Reconfiguration of Canada-Europe Relations after Brexit”, supported by a SSHRC Insight Grant (2019-2024). As applicant or co-applicant, he has also been awarded various grants to support the Centre for European Studies, including most recently funding from the EU’s Erasmus+ Programme for a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence (2019-2022).
The main fields of Achim’s teaching are EU politics, comparative politics (with a focus on Europe), as well as democratic and state theory. He has also taught introductory courses in the fields of Political Science and European, Russian and Eurasian Studies. In 2011, he was awarded the Faculty of Public Affairs Teaching Award; in 2019, he won Carleton University’s Excellence in Blended and Online Teaching Award.

Editor-in-Chief the Geostrategic Pulse between April 2019 - June 2021.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/constantin-iacobita-04b77747/

Foreign policy analyst and independent researcher. Former political adviser for the German Embassy in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

He is a career diplomat whose activity mainly focused on the East Asian space. He was ambassador, representative with special assignments for the Asia region, MFA (2018–2019), EU ambassador to Japan (2014–2018), head of the Asia and Pacific Department, European External Action Service, Brussels (2011–2014), ambassador of Romania in the People's Republic of China (2002–2011), Ambassador of Romania to the Republic of Korea (2000–2002), Minister-Counsellor at the Embassy of Romania in Great Britain (1998–2000), Deputy Director, Department for the UN and International Organizations, MFA (1996–1998) , minister-counsellor at the Romanian Embassy in Japan (1992–1996), chief of staff of the prime minister (1990–1992), press attaché at the Romanian Embassy in the People's Republic of China (1985–1990), diplomat in the MFA (1978–1985). He received numerous orders and distinctions: Order of the Rising Sun with Gold and Silver Star awarded by the Government of Japan (2020), Ambassador Medal of Friendship awarded by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (2011), Order of Diplomatic Merit of the Republic of Korea ( 2002), Knight Order of Faithful Service awarded by the President of Romania (2000), Diplomat of the Year 2010, prize awarded by Nine O'clock newspaper. He also has a rich teaching experience supporting numerous courses in the diplomatic field.

Ambassador Ion I. Jinga is a career diplomat and has been working for the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1992. Between 1995 and 2001 he served as Deputy Head of Mission and Chargé d'affaires a.i. at the Mission of Romania to the European Union in Brussels, and between 2002 and 2003 he was Director General for the European Union within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2003 he was appointed Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Romania to the Kingdom of Belgium, and between 2008 and 2015 served as Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Romania to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Since 2015 he has been the Permanent Representative of Romania to the United Nations. In 2017, by Presidential Decree, Ion Jinga received the diplomatic rank of Ambassador.
Ambassador Ion I. Jinga graduated the Faculty of Physics and the Faculty of Law, at the University of Bucharest, as well as the National School of Political Science and Public Administration. In 1992 he received an MA in European Administration from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. In 1993 he received a scholarship offered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office at Leeds University, Great Britain, and between 1997 and 1999 he conducted a NATO-funded research project entitled “Joining NATO, the EU, and the WEU: Differences, Similarities, Synergies. Romania’s Case”. In 1999 he obtained a PhD in Law, and his thesis was titled “Institutional Reform of the European Union in the Context of the Intergovernmental Conference to Review the Maastricht Treaty”.
At the end of his mandate in the United Kingdom, the House of Commons issued for the first time to a Romanian diplomat, the following motion: „The House commends the work of the outgoing Ambassador of Romania to the UK, Dr Ion Jinga, who has played a significant part in developing relations between the two countries; recognises Dr Jinga’s deep historical understanding of the Romanian-British relationship, and the effective and skilled manner in which he has represented his country and the Romanian community in the UK; notes Dr Jinga’s impressive diplomatic and intellectual record; and wishes Dr Jinga well in his future roles.”
As a UN ambassador, Ion Jinga chaired no less than eight commissions and structures within the organization, a first for Romania: the UN Commission on Social Development, the UN Commission on Population and Development, the UN Peacebuilding Commission, the UN Committee on Disarmament and International Security, the Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Security Council Reform (Co-Chair), the UN Group of Governmental Experts on Transparency of Military Expenditures (MILEX), the Group of Francophone Ambassadors to the UN, the Committee for the United Nations Population Award. In 2017, in recognition of his activity at the United Nations, the President of the UN General Assembly granted him the “Diploma for outstanding contributions to the success of the work of the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly”.
He authored and co-authored five books on European Integration, and wrote numerous articles on the EU and the UN, which he published in magazines and on his Huffington Post blog. Some of his books are: the first dictionary on European integration (2000), “The European Union. Realities and Perspectives” (1999), which mentions for the first time Romania’s path to European integration for the year 2007, while “The European Union Looking for Future” (2008) was included in 2014 by the European Parliament in the online collection titled “100 Books on Europe to Remember”.
Ion Jinga gave speeches and held seminars at universities in Romania, Belgium, Spain, the UK and the USA. He received the title „Ambassador of the Year” in Bucharest, Brussels and London and received honorary awards and decorations from countries such as Romania, France, Belgium, the UK and the USA. Ever since 2014 he has been „Freeman of the City of London”.

Övgü Kalkan Küçüksolak, has completed her BSc. in International Relations at Istanbul Bilgi University and holds a Master’s degree in International and European Relations from Linköpings University (Sweden).
Küçüksolak gained her PhD degree from the National Defense University-Strategic Researches Institute in 2011. Her areas of interest include; strategic studies, geopolitics, security studies and global governance.
Dr. Küçüksolak served at Boğaziçi University-TUSIAD Foreign Policy Forum which ranked amongst the reputable think-thanks in Turkey. She currently lectures both in undergraduate and graduate levels at Yalova University, Department of International Relations.

Prof. Dr. Christian Kaunert is Chair of Policing and Security, as well as Director of the International Centre for Policing and Security at the University of South Wales. He is also the Leader of the Cognate Research Group on Policing and Security at the University of South Wales. Previously, he served as an Academic Director and Professor at the Institute for European Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, a Professor of International Politics, Head of Discipline in Politics, and the Director of the European Institute for Security and Justice, a Jean Monnet Centre for Excellence, at the University of Dundee.
Prof Kaunert has researched and taught in many international universities, and has been awarded with a prestigious Jean Monnet Chair in EU Justice and Home Affairs Policy and EU Counter-Terrorism (2012, 2013, 2017 and 2018). He is currently the Editor of the Journal of Contemporary European Studies, International Conflict and Cooperation and the Edward Elgar Book Series ‘European Security and Justice Critiques’. He is also on the editorial board of the journal European Politics and Society (EPS) and the Journal of European Integration (JEI).

Jean-Pierre KELLER is a Senior Analyst and Deputy at the Terrorism-Joint Analysis Group (T-JAG) at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP). His research focuses on local terrorist networks, terrorist financing and inter-related terrorism threats. In his role Jean-Pierre developed projects, teaches and lectures in intelligence/counter-terrorism analysis and management.
Jean-Pierre holds a Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) in Global Security and Conflict Resolution from the Global Studies Institute, University of Geneva. As GCSP Executive-in-Residence, he accomplished both GCSP & Swiss Federal Office of Civil Protection crisis management trainings. Retired officer of the Swiss Army, he was a Company Commander, specialized in disaster relief and was trained as a UN military observer.

Dr. Kogan is a noted expert in the field of defence technologies. He has held a series of research fellowships at some of Europe’s most renowned research institutes, including Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Auswaertige Politik, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, the Swedish Defence Research Agency, and the Swedish National Defence College. Recently he was attached as Guest Researcher to the Centre for Pacific Asia Studies at Stockholm University and to the Department of International Relations at Middle East Technical University. For the last five years he was employed as Guest Researcher at the Vienna-based International Institute for Liberal Policy.
Dr Kogan is a prolific writer and has presented an extensive series of papers on the following topics:
• Russian military aviation industry;
• Russian aerospace forces;
• Russian arms exports;
• Defence industrial policy in Central and Eastern Europe including Bulgaria and Romania;
• Arms export policy;
• Israeli defence industrial policy and arms export strategy;
• Energy and energy-security in the Euro-Asiatic area;
• Russian-Turkish relations;
• Turkey-NATO relations;
• South Caucasus countries defence and security agenda.
Dr.Kogan currently resides in Tbilisi and works as defence and security expert.
E-mail: eugene1kogan@gmail.com

His Excellency Mr. Faud Karim Saliba Kokaly is the Ambassador of the State of Palestine in Romania since 2014.
He graduated from the Bethleem University in Palestine in 1993 with a degree in sociology.
Since 2006 he is an elected member of the Palestinian Legal Council.
Other significant positions held: member of the Christian Committee of the Arab Orthodox Christian Council in Palestine; president of the “Bethlehem Fair Trade Artisans”; president of the “Palestinian Wildlife Society”.

Eva J. Koulouriotis is a political analyst specializing in the Middle East. She is a writer and commentator on international (mainly Arabic) media and networks such as Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Annahar, The New Arab, Al-Sharq Qatar, Orient News, Arab News, Huffington Post Greece, RT. The areas of her interest include the Syrian revolution and the international and regional conflict around it, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Turkey's role in the Middle East, the consequences of US, EU and Russia involvement in the region, jihad and jihadist organizations, Greek-Turkish relations.
She is also Vice-President of the Greek Section of the European Union of Women (EUW-Hellas) and Chair of the Culture Committee of the European Council of EUW.

Dr. Mohammed Issam Laaroussi is a Professor of International Relations in the Academy of international Relations, Istanbul, Turkey and ex-director of Research and studies at TRENDS Research and Advisory, think tank based in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Dr. Laaroussi is experienced in the analysis of the evolving multi-dimensional aspects of strategic and security issues, with over 20 years of expertise. His main areas of expertise are International Law, Management of International Organizations, National Security Approaches, and Foreign Policy Analysis, Crisis Management, and Geo-strategic studies, Terrorism Affairs, Leadership and Governance, with a focus on the MENA and Europe regions.
Dr Issam is a political analyst in different media outlets (Abu Dhabi TV-Sky News Arabia-Al Hora channel-CCTV, Medi 1 TV, INDUS TV…) He sheds the light on different political and security issues and provides analysis on current ongoing issues in the MENA region. He is an academic writer with insights and articles published in different specialized reviews, journals and Magazines with his work also appearing in China Radio International (CRI), for whom he is a columnist. Dr Issam Laaroussi is professor of security and defense approaches in Police College UAE and he was a professor in the American University of Leadership, Rabat and Ex- Senior officer within Moroccan Security Department, Ministry of Interior. He holds a PhD in International Relations as well as an MA in Security and Defense Studies, from Mohamed V University, Rabat, Morocco and United States of America.

Valentin Lazea is Chief Economist for the National Bank of Romania, as well as Chairman of STFD-TRANSFOND. He attended traning courses at the IMF Institute, Washington DC, USA, Sussex University, Brighton, Great Britain, and Istituto Giordano dell’Amore, Milan, Italy.
He is co-founding member and Chairman of the Romanian Centre for Economic Policies (RCEP).
He is a published author. He wrote numerous studies and books some of which are: Modificări structurale în economia românească după integrare, RCEP, 2007; Prioritizarea politicilor UE în cadrul procesului de revizuire a bugetului comunitar, RCEP, 2012. He is the co-author of The EU and Romania: Accession and Beyond, The Federal Trust, London, 2006; co-editor and co-author of Modificări structurale şi performanţe economice în România, IRLI Publishing, Bucharest, 2003.
He also attended three technical assistance programmes for the National Commission for Strategy and Prognosis, for the Romanian Ministry of Public Finance and for the Office of the Prime Minister of Romania, financed via PHARE (2001-2007).

Prof. Sarah Leonard joined the University of the West of England Bristol as a Professor of International Security in July 2018. Sarah holds a PhD in International Politics from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, a Master of Arts in Russian and Eurasian Studies from the University of Leeds, as well as an MA in European Studies and a BA in Politics (International Relations) from the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium). Prior to taking up her post at UWE Bristol, Sarah was a Lecturer in International Security at the University of Salford, a Marie Curie Research Fellow at Sciences Po Paris, a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Dundee and an Associate Professor in International Affairs at Vesalius College, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium). Sarah is interested in international security, counter-terrorism, European integration, as well as migration, asylum and borders issues. Her research interests lie at the intersection between Security Studies and European Studies. She is particularly interested in the study of securitization processes and the development of the European Union’s internal security policies, especially those relating to asylum, migration and borders, as well as counter-terrorism. She is a member of the Social Sciences Research Group and of the Global Security and Human Rights research theme.

Natalija Lukec is a University Specialist for National Security, from Zagreb, Croatia.
Winner of a The Best Students of the University of Zagreb Scholarship, she holds university degrees in Political Sciences – National Security, International Politics and Diplomacy, Political Science Education, Intercultural German Studies and Pedagogical Sciences.
Her research fields are Weapons of Mass Destruction, Hybrid Warfare, Geopolitics of the Middle East Conflicts, The Building of the European Security Architecture and Systems Theory in Political Science.

George Cristian Maior has been accredited as the extraordinary and plenipotentiary Ambassador of Romania to the United States of America on 29 June 2015, officially starting his mandate on 17 September 2015, after presenting his accreditation letters. George Cristian Maior started his diplomatic career in 1992, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania, at the Treaties Department and the Strategic Affairs Department. Between 1997 and 1999 he was the Charge d’Affairs a.i. at the Romanian Embassy in the Republic of Ireland. In 2004 he received the diplomatic rank of Ambassador.

He is a researcher and consultant at the Strategy International Think Tank, focusing on Regional Affairs, Energy Markets and Commodities, Sustainability, Geopolitical Intelligence, and Defense and Security. He specializes in energy geopolitics and publishes articles on topics such as geostrategy, natural resources, security architecture in the Eastern Mediterranean, Greek-Turkish relations, and the Cyprus question. His expertise and interest span a wide range of subjects, including great power competition, climate change politics, EU energy and foreign policy, energy transition, ideology and propaganda, and the socioeconomic implications of the ongoing 4th Industrial Revolution. He has an academic background in environmental science, and holds an MSc with Distinction in Energy Law, Business, Regulation, and Policy from the International Hellenic University (IHU).

Marius-Sorin Miclea is a career diplomat.
He graduated the Military High School “Mihai Viteazul”, the Air Force Academy “Aurel Vlaicu”, the Faculty of Law, and the National Defence College “Carol I” (in Romania).
He then studied in France, obtaining his PhD in International Relations and European Studies, University of Lyon and his master’s degree in Political Sciences, University of Grenoble. He also studied at the Institute of Advanced Studies in National Defence, in Paris.
He is also specialized as inspector for international arms control (diploma obtained in France, in 2006).
Between 1985 and 2002 he served for the Romanian Air Force.
Between 2006 and 2008 he was an inspector for international arms control, and starting with 2008 has been serving as a diplomat for the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Marius-Sorin Miclea holds the diplomatic rank of Consul General.

Jelena Milić is the Director of the Center of Euro-Atlantic Studies (CEAS). She is among the most influential political analysts in Serbia and the Western Balkan region.
The key areas of her expertise and interest are: Transatlantic relations; US foreign politics; NATO affairs; EU affairs, NATO, policies of the EU and its member states towards South East Europe and Russia; Serbian foreign and security policies with a special focus on relations with NATO; Russian influence in the Western Balkans and Europe; Transitional justice and security sector reform; Contemporary social-liberalism; Democratic deficit of multiculturalism.
She has a degree in Engineering Security Management from Union Nikola Tesla University in Belgrade. She is currently finishing her master’s thesis on NATO’s Crisis management system and emergency planning policies and structures.

Brigade General (Ret) PhD Mircea MÎNDRESCU started his military career in 1977 when was admitted at the Military High School in Câmpulung Moldovenesc. Among the educational stages achieved after the High School are the Signals Military Academy, High Military Studies Academy, The Royal Netherlands Military College, Joint Services Command and Staff College in Shirvenham (UK) as well as Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. In 2012 the Defence National University (Romania) awarded him the title of PhD.
The military career of Bg.Gen. MÎNDRESCU included important national defence domains such as operative units and big units (parachute and special operation), military education, military diplomacy, Theatres of Operations, operational, defence and armaments planning as well as international positions. He is a licensed parachutist, alpinist and diver.
Between 2013 and 2016 he was the first Romanian commander of the Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre, Lisbon, the first and only NATO military structure that Romania is commanding jointly, with Portugal. His last active military position was as Chief, Strategic Planning Directorate of the Romanian Defence Staff.
Brigade General MÎNDRESCU retired in 2017 after 40 years of military service and is currently the Chair of the Executive Academic Board (EAB) at the European Security and Defence College, after his election in 2017.

Sergiu Mişcoiu is a professor at the Faculty of European Studies (Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca). He has a PhD in political sciences from the Paris-East University and a PhD in history from the Babeș-Bolyai University. He is also a PhD coordinator in both these universities. Between 2012 and 2016, he has led the Department of International Relations from the Faculty of European Studies, and starting with March 2016 he is the Director of the Centre for International Cooperation within the Babeș-Bolyai University.
His research fields are: constructivist and discursive theories related to the formation and functioning of the political communities, and especially to the emergence of radical, populist and extremist groups; political transition and democratisation in French-speaking societies (especially France and Central and Wes Africa).
He is the author of: Au pouvoir par le Peuple! Le populisme saisi par la théorie du discours (Paris, L’Harmattan, 2012), Naissance de la nation en Europe. Théories classiques et théorisations constructivistes (Paris, L’Harmattan, 2010), Formarea naţiunii. O teorie socio-constructivistă (Cluj, Efes, 2006) and Le Front National et ses répercussions sur l’échiquier politique français (Cluj, Efes, 2005). He co-wrote and co-edited 50 scientific articles published in Romania, France, the USA, Germany, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, Belgium, the Republic of Moldova and Hungary.

Saeed Mokbil is the President of the International Organization for the Least Developed Countries (IOLDCs) and a former Member of the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries. He has 30 years of professional experience in dealing with the UN charter based and the UN monitory based mechanisms.

He has held various senior positions as a former diplomat accredited to the UN, including his diplomatic experience and his participation in international conferences and the UN meetings made him prioritize the importance of global cooperation and multilateralism for achieving peace, security.

After the end of his mandate recently as a Member of the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries he has been awarded a certificate of recognition of his commitments and the expertise shown throughout his tenure, signed by the President of the Human Rights Council and have received a letter of thanks signed by the UN High Commissioner for his role as a mandate holder.

After a long service in the Romanian diplomacy, where he served as Secretary of State for Euro-Atlantic Integration, Ambassador to the Netherlands (1999-2001), Permanent Representative of Romania to the United Nations (2003-2005) and to the European Union (2008-2015), as well as Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (2015), Mihnea Motoc also served as Minister of Defence (2015-2017).
He is currently the Deputy Head of the European Political Strategy Centre and special adviser for the President of the European Commission, on matters of European defence and security.

Renata-Marilena MUSTA (born 1994) is a PhD candidate at the European Paradigm Doctoral School, Faculty of European Studies, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca (Romania) in the field of international relations and European studies, and an officer at Satu Mare Penitentiary.
Her scientific and research activity includes a study in a collective volume and book reviews in national journals. Her research interests are negotiations, diplomacy, decision-making, economics, migration, human rights, security and conflict resolution.

VALENTIN NAUMESCU, PhD, is a professor at the Department of International Relations for the Faculty if European Studies, “Babeş-Bolyai” University in Cluj-Napoca and President of the think-tank "Initiative for European Democratic Culture" (IEDC).
In 2013 he founded Citadel, a think-tank within the University, which deals with international relations. He is an independent expert on international relations for the European Commission. He used to be a Secretary of State for the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2005-2007), a diplomatic counsellor within the ministry (2007-2008) and the Romanian Consul to Toronto (2008-2012).
Some of his latest books are: Romania, the Great Powers and the European Order: 1918-2018 (2018), The EU Crisis and the Global Order in the Trump Era (2017), Great Changes and Perspectives in International Policy (2015), Democracy and Security in the 21st Century: Perspectives on a Changing World (2014) and The European Union’s Eastern Neighbourhood Today: Politics, Dynamics, Perspectives (published with Dan Dungaciu; 2015). He is also part of the team publishing The New European Union and Its Global Strategy: from Brexit to PESCO, coming soon at Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Great Britain.

James Noone is a distinguished graduate of the United States National War College, Class of ’95.

Iulia Monica Oehler-Şincai has a PhD in economics, specialization international economic relations, scientific researcher at the Institute for World Economy of the Romanian Academy since March 2008. Among her favorite research topics are: international trade, trade and investment policies, EU external relations, regional economic integration, emerging economies, the BRICS group of countries, the New Public Management, the dynamics of the balance of power in Asia-Pacific, the Chinese economic model, China’s public diplomacy.
Iulia Monica Oehler-Şincai studied at the Faculty of International Economic Relations, Bucharest University of Economic Studies. During October 2010-September 2012 she was a post-doctoral researcher in a training program for elite scholars (SPODE), with the research topic trade and investment flows between the EU and the BRICS. She visited many research institutions abroad, including the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the German Development Institute of Bonn (Germany), the University of Seville (Spain), the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW), the Economic Research Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, institutes of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Fudan University (China). She participated in scientific events in Romania and abroad (Sweden, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, China). Her works include research studies, papers and articles such as: Trade Power of Asia (book, Tribuna Economica Printing House, 2008, 311 pages), EU Trade with Its Strategic Partners (book, Tribuna Economica Printing House, 2012, 200 pages), BRICS Countries Economic Situation and Prospects (yearly research paper since 2012), EU Positioning in the Economic and Geopolitical Reality: Anthology of Case Studies and Reflections Regarding the New World Economic Order (book, University of Bucharest Printing House, 2015, 302 pages).
A member of the scientific board of journals indexed in international databases and reviewer for journals such as: Romanian Journal of European Affairs (European Institute of Romania), Global Economic Observer (IEM), Euroinfo (IEM), Global Media and China, International Journal of Communication, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Third World Quarterly, Sociological Review.
Some of her research papers can be accessed at https://ideas.repec.org/e/poe5.html.

- Member of SCIP (Strategic Competitive Intelligence Professionals);
- Member of the Scientific Board of INFOSFERA Magazine ;
- Business/Competitive Intelligence – Business Intelligence Magazine - Editorial Board;
- DINCOLO DE ORIZONTURI [Beyond Horizons] magazine, Member of the Editorial Board;
- Associate professor at CNAp., UBB, ASE;
- President of ICSS – Integrated Corporate Strategic Services.
He is the author of numerous research projects, articles and scientific communications published in volumes of national scientific events and press articles. Author or co-author of books, including Information Production, Information Analysis Methods and Techniques, Information Activity, Preventive Diplomacy, etc.

She is a specialist in applied psychology in the field of national security. Clinical psychologist and psychotherapist specialized in cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy, accredited by the Romanian College of Psychologists, trainer, sociologist, consultant for psychological profiler and political leadership, applied psychology in the field of national security, individual and group personal development. She is a graduate of the Faculty of Psychology, Sociology and the Faculty of Biotechnology, she consolidated her studies with a master’s degree in forensic psychology and victimology, in cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy and forensic psychology, psychological profiler and political leadership, in genetic engineering and biotechnologies. She is the author of many specialized, profile works.

Ioan Mircea PAŞCU is, since February 2020, the Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the National School of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest.
Between 2007 and 2019 he was a Member of the European Parliament, where he held various positions, including Vice-President of the European Parliament(November 2014 – 2 July 2019), S&D Coordinator for Security and Defence Vice-Chair: Committee on Foreign Affairs (January 2007 - January 2017), Member in the Parliament's Bureau Subcommittee on Security and Defence Delegation for relations with Japan, the Delegation to the EU-Moldova Parliamentary Cooperation Committee and the Delegation for relations with the United States.
IM Paşcu was a member of the Romanian Government where he was the minister of National Defence (2000-2004) and Secretary of State, MoND, for Defence Policy and International Relations (1993-1996).
He was a member of the Romanian Parliament (1996 - 2007) and, previously, the Presidential counsellor and Head of the Foreign Policy Directorate, Department of Political Analysis with the Romanian Presidential Administration (1990-1992).
Since 1990 he is a Professor of International Relations with the National School of Political Studies and Public Administration, Bucharest, Romania.

Dan Pavel is a writer, philosopher, political consultant, and member of the Writers' Union, founder and vice president of the Revoluționari fără Privilegii (Revolutionaries without Privileges Association), editor in chief of Timpul Magazine. He is a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Bucharest. He graduated from the Faculty of History and Philosophy, University of Bucharest (1982). He was the editor in chief of the Viata Studenteasca and Amfiteatru Magazines (1986-1989). He was assistant editor and founder of the 22, Sfera Politicii and Polis Magazines. After 1990, he had several scholarships in the USA, in journalism, US foreign policy and political sciences. Ever since 1994, he has been a professor at the faculty of Political Sciences and Journalism, Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. Ever since 1997, he has been a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Bucharest. Some of his works are Cine, ce şi de ce? Interviuri despre politică şi alte tabuuri (1998), Leviathanul bizantin (1998), Nu putem reuşi decît împreună (2003, in cooperation with Iulia Huiu), Democraţia bine temperată (2010), Grajdurile lui Augias, Rituri de purificare în posttotalitarism (2017), Războaiele neterminate din era Facebook (2019).

Adrian Pop is Professor of International Relations with the Faculty of Political Sciences at the National University of Political Science and Public Administration (NUPSPA) in Bucharest, a Ph.D. supervisor of theses in Political Science at the Doctoral School of NUPSA, Chair of the Romania Node of The Millennium Project, and Director of the Centre for Regional and Global Studies within the Romanian Scientific Society for Interdisciplinary Research. He holds a Ph.D. in History from the “Babeş-Bolyai” University in Cluj-Napoca, a Diploma with Honours from the International Academy of Broadcasting, a MA in Political Science from Central European University in Budapest, and over 20 years of experience in interdisciplinary research and trans-institutional collaboration with experts from around the world. A former Visiting Fellow with the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, International Research Fellow with the NATO Defence College in Rome and Senior Visiting Fulbright Scholar with the University of Maryland, he is a member of various international and national professional associations including European International Studies Association (EISA), Central and East European International Studies Association (CEEISA), Foresight Europe Network (FEN), and World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF). He also sits in the editorial boards of several scholarly journals, including Eastern Journal of European Studies edited by the Centre for European Studies of “Alexandru I. Cuza” University in Iasi and Moldoscopie (Probleme de analiză politică) edited by the State University in Moldova. He has extensively published in the fields of International Relations, geopolitics, security and defence, Cold War history, and history of historiography, a series of books with a particular focus on the Black Sea region, East-Central and South-Eastern Europe, including The Fall of the Soviet Empire: “Lessons” in Retrospect, The Origins and Typology of East European Revolutions, Moldova-Romania: Managing Migration and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings at the EU Eastern Border, Geopolitics, At the Crossroads of Interlocking Subregional Arrangements, and A Phenomenology of Romanian Historical Thinking. In 2012, the Romanian Academy awarded him the “George Bariţiu” prize for his 2010 book titled The Origins and Typology of East European Revolutions.

He has participated as coordinator or member in numerous research projects under the aegis of various international organizations, institutions, institutes, research centres and foundations in Europe and America, including the European Union (European Social Fund), the European Commission (DG for Education and Culture), the International Organization for Migration, the European Parliament, the European Institute of Romania in Bucharest, the Peace, Action, Training and Research Institute of Romania in Cluj-Napoca, the Centre for Applied Policy Research at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Münich, the Bertelsmann Foundation in Gütersloh, the Centre for European Security Studies in Groningen, the Military Centre for Strategic Studies in Rome, the Institute for Regional and International Studies in Sofia, the International Research and Exchanges Board, and the American Council for the United Nations University in Washington.

Nicu Popescu is the director of the ‘Wider Europe programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations’, and he works from ECFR's Paris office. His topics of focus include EU’s relations with Russia and the Eastern Partnership countries.
In 2019, Popescu served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova. Previously, he worked as a senior analyst at the EU Institute for Security Studies (2013-2018); senior advisor on foreign policy to the prime minister of Moldova (2010, 2012-2013); senior research fellow at ECFR's London office (2007-2009, 2011-2012), and as a research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels (2005-2007).
Popescu teaches at Sciences-Po Paris. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. He is author of the EU foreign policy and post-Soviet conflicts: stealth intervention (Routledge 2010) and co-editor of Democratization in EU Foreign Policy (with Benedetta Berti and Kristina Mikulova), published in 2015. https://www.ecfr.eu/profile/category/nicu_popescu

CEO Romanian Business Exchange

He held important positions in the national security system such as: head of the Psychological Expertise Centre within the PSS, Authorized Director of the Psycho-sociology Centre of the Ministry of Interior, advisor to the state secretary in Ministry of Interior; advisor in the Supreme Defense Council of the Country, Presidential Administration; spokesperson of the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" Police Academy. Nicolae Radu is a PhD professor. within the "Spiru Haret" University in Bucharest. Since 2018, as an associate professor, he has taught courses in Leadership, Specialized Laboratory - Information Services, Military Psychopathology at the University in Bucharest. Since 2015, Nicolae Radu has been a qualified PhD supervisor for Information and National Security at the "Carol I" National Defence University. Currently, Nicolae Radu has operational concerns in the area of intelligence, prevention and combating terrorism, but also in the area of applied psychology for personnel destined for special missions such as Sayeret Matkal within the Israel Elite Special Forces Unit and General Staff Reconnaissance Unit 269.

Brigadier General (ret) Ciprian-Mircea Rădulescu graduated from the Technical Military Academy in 1985, Artillery and Rockets Section.
After graduation, he was assigned in execution and leading positions in the Armed Forces Experimental Polygon, the Artillery Laboratory and the Development and Technical Section of the Artillery Command.
Starting with 1993, he worked in the General Staff in execution functions, Chief of Bureau and Chief of Section.
The international career of Brigadier General (ret) Rădulescu includes positions as Military Observer, UNIKOM (1997-1998), Staff Officer, NATO Joint Force Command Lisbon (2006-2010) as well as military diplomacy: Deputy Defence Attaché in London (2001-2005) and Defence Attaché in London (2014-2017).
He ended his military career in 2017, after 37 years of service.

Ovidiu Raețchi is a writer specialized on the Middle East. He is a history grad student and his thesis covers the Israel-Egyptian peace process (1979). He is also a political science grad student and his second thesis is focused on the evolution of the Muslim Brotherhood from 1928 to date. Mr. Raețchi has a master’s degree in Arabic culture and another in Hebrew civilization. He majored in political sciences and has a post-graduate and security education in Bucharest and Garmisch-Partenkirchen. He published six volumes of essays and the history of civilisation: ”EsTeistica” (“EssayThetics”); ”Din Agora” (“Of Agora”); ”Scurt Tratat despre Iubire” (“A Short Treaty on Love”); ”Soldatul Putin și Filosoful Dughin: Civilizația Rusă în Fața unei Noi Erori Imperialiste” (“Private Putin and Dughin the Philosopher: Russian Civilization Facing a New Imperialistic Error”); ”Avangarda Califatului: O Istorie Intelectuală a Jihadismului” (“The Avant-Guarde of the Caliphate: An Intellectual History of the Jihad”); ”Tzahal: O Istorie a Armatei Israeliene” (“The Tzahal: A Short History of the Israeli Armed Forces”).

Jean-Paul ROUILLER worked for the Swiss Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) from December 2003 to January 2010, creating the first Counter-terrorism Unit within the Swiss Federal Criminal Police (SFCP). He then developed the structures and concepts of the first counter-terrorism analysis unit of the SFCP (in charge of intelligence collection and risk analysis in the field of counter-terrorism and terrorism).
In 1994, Mr Rouiller joined the Swiss Intelligence Service as a junior country analyst. By 1996, Rouiller had taken responsibility for all terrorism files; these encompassed, among others, Radical Islamic organizations, the ‘ethno-nationalists’ groups (eg. IRA, PKK, LTTE or ETA) and the remnants of the far-left (eg. 17N phantom group in Greece).
Mr Rouiller left the Swiss Intelligence Service in October 2000 in order to join the Office of the Coordinator of Intelligence Services of Ambassador Jacques Pitteloud, as Adviser on Homeland Security.
The events that led him to join the Swiss Federal Criminal Police unfolded in late 2001, following the 9/11 attacks. From December 2003 to December 2010, Mr Rouiller created, developed and lead no less than four different counter-terrorism units within the Swiss Federal Criminal Police. In 2011, he created the Geneva Centre for Training and Analysis of Terrorism.
In 2017, Mr Rouiller created the Terrorism Joint Analysis Group at the GCSP, to deliver timely analysis to both the public and private sectors on the global manifestations of terror.

Michael RÜHLE is Head of the Hybrid Challenges and Energy Security Section in NATO’s Emerging Security Challenges Division. Previously he was Head, Speechwriting, in NATO’s Political Affairs Division, and Senior Political Advisor in the NATO Secretary General’s Policy Planning Unit. In these positions, he wrote speeches and articles for six Secretaries General.
Mr. Rühle has published widely on international security issues and is a frequent speaker on NATO affairs. He is an Honorary Ancien of the NATO Defense College and a recipient of the Star of Lithuanian Diplomacy and the Bene Merito Medal bestowed by the Republic of Poland.

Radu Sava is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Bucharest, conducting doctoral research on the 20th century post-war relations between Romania and the People's Republic of China. He holds a MA degree in Compared European Political Studies (Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, 2020) as well as a MA degree in Chinese Politics and Foreign Policy (Tsinghua University, Beijing, 2019) as a scholar of the Romanian Government.

He served as a Fellow at the China-Europe Research Center of Tsinghua University (Beijing, 2019-2020), as a Counsellor to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Bucharest), has worked as a political affairs intern for the United Nations Secretariat (New York) and with the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (Berlin). He is the author of Reflecții asupra relațiilor româno-chineze la 70 de ani de raporturi diplomatice: Convorbiri cu Excelența Sa ambasadorul Romulus Ioan Budura (Sibiu: Lucian Blaga University Press, 2020, 327 p.).

Associate professor at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, at the National Defence University "Carol I", and at the National Intelligence Academy, he teaches Euro-Atlantic Security, Strategic Leadership, Defence Diplomacy, European Union Policy and Decision-Making.
He served in the Romanian Armed Forces until his retirement as a General, in 2017, Gheorghe Savu was the Chief of the Romanian Military Intelligence Directorate and the Director General of the Defence Intelligence General Directorate. Between 2012-2017, he served as Minister Counsellor in the Romanian Permanent Representation to the European Union and as Romanian Military Representative to NATO and EU.

Jiri ŠEDIVÝ is the Chief Executive of the European Defece Agency (EDA) since May 2020. He was appointed by the Steering Board on 5 March 2020 following a recommendation by the Head of the Agency, Josep Borrell.
Mr Šedivý brought with him extensive experience in the defence domain, having served as Defence Minister of the Czech Republic (2006-2007), Deputy Defence Minister (2010-2012), NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy and Planning (2007-2010) and Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to NATO (2012-2019). He also was Deputy Minister for European Affairs of the Czech Republic (2007) and special representative for resilience and new threats at the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2019-2020).
Mr Šedivý has a distinguished academic background. He is a graduate of Charles University (Prague) where he earned a PhD in Political Science, and of King’s College (London) where he earned an MA in War Studies. From 2004 to 2006 he was Professor of Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, lecturing on topics such as defence sector transformation, civil-military relations and national strategy making.
Between 1999 and 2004, he was Director of the Institute of International Relations in Prague, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Charles University, Prague, and Professor of European Security at New York University, Prague Centre. As an expert, he played an important role in the Czech Republic’s accession to NATO. It was during this period that he also served as external adviser to President Václav Havel.

Greg graduated with a PhD from the University of Canterbury in 2004, in 2015 became Associate Professor at the, Uppsala University, Sweden . Greg Simons is currently a researcher at the Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies (IRES) at Uppsala University and a lecturer at the Department of Communication Science at Turiba University in Riga, Latvia. His research interests include the changing political dynamics and relationships, mass media, public diplomacy, information warfare, hybrid warfare and subversion, organised persuasive communication, political marketing, crisis management communications, media and armed conflict, and the Russian Orthodox Church. He also researched the relationships and connections between information, politics and armed conflict more broadly, such as the GWOT and Arab Spring, events in the New Cold War (within the context of the transforming global order).

Vladimir Socor is a Senior Fellow of the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation and its flagship publication, Eurasia Daily Monitor (1995 to date), where he writes analytical articles on a daily basis. An internationally recognized expert on the former Soviet-ruled countries in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia, he covers Russian and Western policies, focusing on energy, regional security issues, Russian foreign affairs, secessionist conflicts, and NATO policies and programs. Mr. Socor is a frequent speaker at U.S. and European policy conferences and think-tank institutions; as well as a regular guest lecturer at the NATO Defense College and at Harvard University’s National Security Program’s Black Sea Program. He is also a frequent contributor to edited volumes. Mr. Socor was previously an analyst with the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute (1983-1994). He is a Romanian-born citizen of the United States based in Munich, Germany.

Peter Stano is the Lead Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European External Action Service (EEAS), former Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovakia. Peter Stano also worked as Spokesperson in the Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy portfolio, which was then led by the former Czech EU Commissioner Štefan Füle. He worked for Slovak public media, in the British BBC World Service and German Deutsche Welle. Leading media work and communication on: Transatlantic relations (US, Canada), Russia, Eastern Partnership, Central Asia, Europe (non-EU) including Western Europe, Western Balkans, and Turkey, Middle East and North Africa (including Iran/JCPoA, MEPP), External aspects of migration, Hybrid threats and disinformation, Global strategy, Multilateral: G7, OSCE.

Dr. Andreea Stoian Karadeli is an independent resercher, lives in Turkey and is cooperating with a series of international organizations and institutions all over the world (NATO, UN, EU).

Robert Sutter is Professor of Practice of International Affairs at George Washington University, Washington DC, USA. A retired government official and Harvard Ph.D. graduate, Sutter has published 22 books (four with multiple editions), over 300 articles and several hundred government reports dealing with China, the United States and Asia.

He is an aviation engineer and during his doctoral studies he was admitted to the SmartSPODAS Project - "Transnational network for the integrated management of smart doctoral and postdoctoral research in the fields of "Military Sciences", "Security and Information" and "Public Order and National Security" - Continuous training program for elite researchers - "SmartSPODAS", in this context participating in various research activities, among them being those organized by CRISMART in Swe-den. During the first part of his career, he performed various executive within the Air Force Staff, and in the second part of his career, he was an executive and leadership positions within the Ministry of National Defence. He participated in various coopera-tion activities at the national and international level, gaining professional experience in the field of inter-national relations and geopolitics. He carried out teaching activities in the academic environment (undergraduate and postgraduate studies).

Laura Vansina is a PhD Candidate at the Brussels School of Governance (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) and the University of Warwick. In her PhD, she analyses the strategic use of historical narratives in Russian foreign and transnational policy discourse. Her broader research interests cover Memory Studies, NATO-Russia Relations, Eastern European Studies, Security Studies and Foreign Policy Analysis. She previously obtained an MA in History and an MSc in Policy Economics at KU Leuven.

Advisor to the CNR - CME, Member of CCDD ODD 7 Energy, Member of the EU-USA Working Group for Intelligent Networks-Smart Grids and electric vehicles -Task Force Committee, Smart-Grids Program Director - CNTEE Transelectrica SA, former member of the Commissions and ministerial cabinets for energy issues and Smart Grids.

Experienced Analyst with a demonstrated history of working in the think tanks industry. Skilled in Political Science, Media Analysis, and International Relations. Strong research professional with a M. A focused in International Relations at the Political Science Department from University of Bucharest.

Ori Wertman is Research Assistant and PhD Candidate at the University of South Wales, was a Foreign Affairs and Political Adviser to former Labor Party chairman Isaac Herzog, former Deputy Chairman of the Labor Party Youth, and a candidate on the Labor Knesset list.