German-American Conference 2025 – Speaker Bios

Lt. Colonel Tina Behnke has been the Personal Assistant to the President of the Federal Academy for Security Policy (BAKS) since October 2024. Previously, she served as General Staff Officer Training at the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College in Hamburg from 2022 to 2024, as Company Commander of a Training Company for NCOs and NCO Candidates in Altenstadt, and as Youth Officer of the German Armed Forces in Erfurt from 2018 to 2019. In 2017. Lt. Col. Behnke was deployed with United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission (MINUSMA) in Mali. She studied Political and Social Sciences with focus on International Law and Politics at the University of the Bundeswehr in Munich and is a member of the German Army’s Reconnaissance Corps.

Esther Brimmer is the James H. Binger senior fellow in global governance at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Brimmer’s career spans government, academia, and non-governmental organization leadership. Her primary areas of interest are governance of the global commons, international organizations, and transatlantic relations. Her U.S. government service includes leading U.S. policy in international organizations as the assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs from 2009 to 2013. She also served on the policy planning staff from 1999 to 2001. At CFR she is writing a book on the need for better governance mechanisms to manage expanding human activities in outer space, and she convenes the Council of Councils, which brings together twenty-seven international affairs research organizations from twenty-four countries for policy analysis and discussion.

Helene Bubrowski is deputy editor-in-chief of Table.Media. Together with Michael Bröcker, she heads the editorial team and hosts the weekday podcast “Table Today”. The Hamburg native studied law in Cologne and Paris and wrote a doctorate in international law. After her second state examination, she joined the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in 2013 and reported from Berlin as a correspondent from 2018 to 2023. The mother of two sons is a regular guest on talk shows, and in 2023 her book “Die Fehlbaren” (The fallible) about the inadequate culture of error in politics was published by dtv.

Ambassador John B. Emerson is the Chairman of the American Council on Germany and Vice Chairman of Capital Group International, Inc. He has more than 20 years of industry experience, all with Capital Group. He served as the United States Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany from 2013 to 2017. In 2015, Ambassador Emerson was awarded the State Department’s Susan M. Cobb Award for Exemplary Diplomatic Service, which is given annually to one non-career ambassador. In 2017, he was awarded the CIA Medal and the U.S. Navy’s Distinguished Public Service award.

Before accepting the ambassadorial posting, he was President of Private Client Services for the Capital Group Companies. Before joining Capital, he was Deputy Assistant to President Clinton, where he coordinated his economic conferences, served as the President’s liaison to the nation’s governors, and led the administration’s efforts to obtain congressional approval of the GATT Uruguay Round Agreement and the extension of China MFN trading status.

Alicia Fawcett is a cybersecurity strategist and policy expert with over a decade of experience at the intersection of threat intelligence, industrial security, and geopolitics. A dual U.S.–European citizen, she has advised governments, international organizations, and Fortune 500 companies across Europe, the U.S., and Asia. She led OT threat intelligence in Germany at Siemens, helping secure industrial control systems in the energy, manufacturing, and transportation sectors. She also served as Director of Threat Intelligence at a Rome-based cybersecurity startup supporting the Italian government, where she directed analysis on state-sponsored threats. Ms. Fawcett previously managed compliance and risk initiatives at McKinsey & Co., supported GDPR and ISO 27001 assurance, and conducted open-source investigations at Uber, the U.S. government, and in international journalism. She contributed to U.S. national cybersecurity efforts through the White House Cybersecurity Moonshot and served with the U.S. Department of State in China. She has worked with think tanks around the world, including the International Crisis Group, the Carnegie Council, the Regional Academy of the United Nations, the U.S.–China Policy Foundation, and the National Bureau of Asian Research. Her writing on modern China has been featured in Politico and The Washington Journal. She is a recognized Carnegie Council New Leader. She holds a dual B.A. in International Relations and Economics, an M.A. in International Diplomacy, and is pursuing a M.S. in Cybersecurity where she is a current Cyber Fellow.

She is an expert on transatlantic economic relations, EU economic policy, finance regulation and economic statecraft. Prior to joining Atlantik-Brücke, Ms. Friedlander was C. Boyden Gray Senior Fellow and Head of the Economic Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. Previously, she served as the Director for European Union, Southern Europe, and Economic Affairs on the White House National Security Council, and as Senior Policy Advisor for Europe in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes. Before joining the Treasury in 2015, she held multiple analytical positions within the Central Intelligence Agency, focusing on global economic stability and energy security. Ms. Friedlander was born in New York and studied European History and Politics, International Energy Policy, and International Relations at Princeton University and at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Before graduate school, she spent two years in Berlin with a grant from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at the German Council on Foreign Relations and German Marshall Fund.

Sigmar Gabriel was Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy from 2013 to 2017 as well as Vice-Chancellor from 2013 to 2018 and served as Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018. On June 26, 2019, Mr. Gabriel was elected Chairman of Atlantik-Brücke by Atlantik-Brücke’s members. Mr. Gabriel has been politically active since 1976. Born in Goslar, he began his political career in a socialist youth organization and joined the SPD in 1977. Trained as a high school educator, he assumed various responsibilities in adult education and became a member of Lower Saxony’s parliament over the course of the 1980s. During the subsequent decade, among other positions, he held the post of chair of the environmental committee of Lower Saxony’s parliament and was a member of the SPD executive committee. He served as prime minister of Lower Saxony from 1999 to 2003, and he was a directly elected member of Germany’s Lower House of Parliament from 2005 until 2019, taking over the post of environmental minister in 2005 as well. Mr. Gabriel, who represented the Salzgitter-Wolfenbüttel district in the German parliament, occupied the position of SPD chairman from 2009 until 2017.

Alexander Gabuev is director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center where he leads a renowned team of analysts who were formerly part of the Carnegie Moscow Center, which was forced to close by the Kremlin in early 2022 after nearly three decades of operation. Mr. Gabuev’s own research is focused on Russian foreign policy with particular focus on the impact of the war in Ukraine and the Sino-Russia relationship. He began his career as a journalist and was a member of the editorial board of Kommersant and served as deputy editor in chief of Kommersant-Vlast, which at the time was one of Russia’s most influential newsweeklies. Mr. Gabuev started his career at Kommersant in 2007 working as a senior diplomatic reporter, as a member of the Kremlin press corps, and as deputy foreign editor for Kommersant. He has previously worked as a nonresident visiting research fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and taught courses on Chinese energy policy and political culture at Moscow State University. In April-June 2018, Gabuev was a visiting scholar at Fudan University (Shanghai, China) where he taught courses on Sino-Russian relations.

Uwe Horstmann is a General Partner and co-founder at Project A, one of the leading early-stage tech investors in Europe, focusing on Climate & Energy, Resilience & Defence, Financial Technology, and Global Supply Chains.Mr. Horstmann is responsible for the venture capital investment activities and the investment team, as well as led investments in defense companies like Quantum Systems, ARX or Labrys. He is also a military officer with the German armed forces.

Prof. Dr. Michael Huether studied from 1982 to 1987 economics as well as medieval and modern history at the Justus-Liebig University in Giessen. Upon completion of his doctorate in economics, in 1991 he became a member of the scientific staff of the Council of Experts for the Evaluation of Macroeconomic Development. In 1995 he was appointed Secretary General of the German Council of Economic Advisers. In 1999, he joined DekaBank as chief economist and in 2001 additionally as Division Manger economics and communication. Since August 2001 Prof. Hüther is Honorary Profes-sor at the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel. In July 2004 he was appoint-ed Director and Member of the main board of the German Economic Institute. In 2016, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024 he was Gerda Henkel Adjunct Professor in the Department of German Studies at Stanford University, CA, USA. Since 2019, Michael Hüther is Vice-Chairman of Atlantik-Brücke.

Harold James, the Claude and Lore Kelly Professor in European Studies at Princeton University, is Professor of History and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School, and an associate at the Bendheim Center for Finance. His books include a study of the interwar depression in Germany, The German Slump (1986); an analysis of the changing character of national identity in Germany, A German Identity 1770-1990 (1989); International Monetary Cooperation Since Bretton Woods (1996), and The End of Globalization (2001), which is available in 8 languages. He was also coauthor of a history of Deutsche Bank (1995), which won the Financial Times Global Business Book Award in 1996, and he wrote The Deutsche Bank and the Nazi Economic War Against the Jews (2001). His most recent books include Family Capitalism, The Creation and Destruction of Value: The Globalization Cycle, Making the European Monetary Union, The Euro and the Battle of Economic Ideas (with Markus K. Brunnermeier and Jean-Pierre Landau), Making A Modern Central Bank: The Bank of England 1979-2003, The War of Words: A Glossary of Globalization. He is the official historian of the International Monetary Fund. In 2004 he was awarded the Helmut Schmidt Prize for Economic History, and in 2005 the Ludwig Erhard Prize for writing about economics. He writes a monthly column for Project Syndicate.[/toggle

 

[toggle title="Emily Kilcrease"]Emily Kilcrease is a senior fellow and director of the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Her research focuses on the U.S.-China economic relationship; alignment of national security objectives and economic policy; and geoeconomic statecraft. Ms. Kilcrease previously served as a deputy assistant U.S. trade representative (USTR). She was involved in the negotiation and enforcement of the Phase One Agreement with China, trilateral work with the EU and Japan to counter unfair Chinese trade practices, and the initial negotiations for a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom. Previously, she served on the National Security Council (NSC) as a director for international trade, investment, and development. Ms. Kilcrease received her MA in international relations, with a concentration in international development and economics, from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She received her BA in government from Georgetown University.

Fritzi Köhler-Geib is a Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank and is responsible for the Research Centre, Data and Statistics, Information Technology and Risk Control. Before assuming this role in November 2024, she was the Chief Economist and First Vice President of the Economics Department of KfW Group. Previously she worked for over ten years at the IMF & the Word Bank in various positions and regions, last as the World Banks Lead Economist and Programme Leader for Central America. She received her PhD in Economics from Ludwig Maximilian University Munich and Pompeu Fabra University, Spain. She holds two master degrees in economics and in international management from the University of St. Gallen, HEC Paris and the University of Michigan. Her research interests focus on financial crises, their stabilization and growth-enhancing reforms. In addition, she teaches a master’s level course on economic transformation processes at Goethe University Frankfurt.

Dr. Charles Kupchan is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and Department of Government. From 2014 to 2017, he served as special assistant to the president and senior director for European affairs on the staff of the National Security Council (NSC) in the Barack Obama administration. He was also director for European affairs on the NSC during the first Bill Clinton administration.  Before joining the Clinton NSC, Dr. Kupchan worked in the U.S. Department of State on the policy planning staff.  Previously, he was an Assistant Professor of Politics at Princeton University. Dr. Kupchan has served as a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs, Columbia University’s Institute for War and Peace Studies, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the Centre d’Étude et de Recherches Internationales in Paris, and the Institute for International Policy Studies in Tokyo. From 2006 to 2007, he was the Henry A. Kissinger scholar at the Library of Congress and a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. From 2013 to 2014, he was a senior fellow at the Transatlantic Academy. Dr. Kupchan received his BA from Harvard University and MPhil and DPhil from Oxford University.

Dr. Claudia Major is GMF’s senior vice president overseeing transatlantic security initiatives and is an executive team member. Previously, Dr. Major was the director of the International Security Division at the German think tank Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Berlin. Her research, advisory work, and publications focus on the field of German security and defense policy, European security and defense policy (NATO, the EU, role of the United States), deterrence and nuclear (dis)order, and the Franco-German relationship.  Currently, she is particularly focused on the repercussions of Russia’s war against Ukraine for Europe, the transatlantic relationship, the nuclear order, and international relations; options to end the war in Ukraine; and how to ensure the long-term security of Europe and Ukraine.

Dr. Major previously held positions at the Center for Security Studies at the ETH Zurich, the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), the EU Institute for Security Studies (Paris), the NATO Department of the German Foreign Office, and Sciences Po Paris. She holds a diploma from the Free University of Berlin and Sciences Po Paris and a PhD from the University of Birmingham (UK).

H.R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is also the Bernard and Susan Liautaud Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute and lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Upon graduation from the US Military Academy in 1984, McMaster served as a commissioned officer in the US Army for thirty-four years. He retired as a lieutenant general in June 2018 after serving as the twenty-fifth Assistant to the US President for National Security Affairs. From 2014 to 2017, McMaster designed the future army as the director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center and the deputy commanding general, futures, of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). McMaster holds a PhD in military history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was an assistant professor of history at the US Military Academy. He is author of the bestselling books Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World and Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies that Led to Vietnam. In August 2024, McMaster released his most recent book, At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House. McMaster is the host of Battlegrounds: Vital Perspectives on Today’s Challenges and is a regular on GoodFellows, both produced by the Hoover Institution. He is a Distinguished University Fellow at Arizona State University.

Dr. A. Wess Mitchell is the principal and co-founder of The Marathon Initiative, which he created in 2019 with Elbridge Colby. He previously served as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs under the first Trump administration. In this role, he was responsible for diplomatic relations with the 50 countries of Europe and Eurasia and played a principal role in formulating Europe strategy in support of the 2017 National Security Strategy and 2018 National Defense Strategy.

Prior to the State Department, Dr. Mitchell served as President and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), which he co-founded in 2005 with Larry Hirsch. In 2020, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg appointed Dr. Mitchell to co-chair, with former German Minister of Defense Thomas de Maizière, the NATO 2030 Reflection Group, a ten-member consultative body charged with providing recommendations on the future of NATO.

Dr. Mitchell holds a doctorate in political science from the Otto Suhr Institut für Politikwissenschaft at Freie Universität in Berlin, a master’s degree in German and European Studies from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, and a bachelor’s degree in history from Texas Tech University.

Prof. Peter Neumann is Professor of Security Studies at the Department of War Studies, and founded the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR), which he directed between 2008 and 2018. Prof. Neumann has authored or co-authored seven books, most recently Bluster: Donald Trump’s War on Terror. Previous books include Radicalized: New Jihadists and the Threat to the West, Old and New Terrorism, The Strategy of Terrorism, and Britain’s Long War: British Strategy in the Northern Ireland Conflict, 1969-98. Prof. Neumann established the MA in Terrorism, Security, and Society at the War Studies Department, and served as its Co-Director from 2008 to 2016. He has taught courses on terrorism, counterterrorism, intelligence, radicalisation and counter-radicalisation at King’s College London, Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, and Sciences Po (Lyon). He holds an MA in Political Science from the Free University of Berlin, and a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London. Before becoming an academic, he worked as a radio journalist in Germany.

Omid Nouripour (Alliance 90/The Greens) was elected Vice-President of the German Bundestag on March 25, 2025. The MP from Frankfurt am Main has been a member of the Bundestag since 2006. Previously, he was the co-chairman of Alliance 90/The Green between 2022 and 2024. One focus of his work in the Bundestag was foreign policy. Among other things, Nouripour was chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, deputy member of the Defense Committee and the Sports Committee and chairman of the German-Ukrainian Parliamentary Group. He was also committed to the protection of human rights defenders in the “Parliamentarians Protect Parliamentarians” (PsP) program of the Bundestag Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid.

As an aerospace engineer specialized in satellite operations, a former military officer and pilot, Patrick O’Keeffe works in a multidisciplinary environment focusing on the transformation of aerospace, maritime, and cyber strategies and policies. After 12 years of active service in the German Navy, he worked in various technology and space companies. He supported the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University (ISPK) and the German Ministry of Defense in space policy. As a reservist officer, he supports NATO in situational awareness across the domains from the seabed to space.

Dr. Norbert Röttgen is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the German Bundestag. He is also Vice Chairman of the Board of Atlantik-Brücke. He served as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs from 2014 until 2021. From 2009 to 2012, he was Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. He has been a Member of the German Parliament since 1994. During his mandate Dr. Röttgen has fulfilled key functions within the Christian Democratic Party (CDU). Dr. Röttgen, who is a lawyer by profession, holds a PhD in Law from Bonn University. He is the Co-Chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and Board Member of various institutions, such as Asia House, Club of Three, the Hertie School and the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP).

Dr. Steven E. Sokol is the President and CEO of the American Council on Germany. Previously, he served as President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh. Prior to that, he was the Vice President and Director of Programs at the ACG. Earlier in his career, Dr. Sokol served as the Deputy Director of the Aspen Institute Berlin, was the Head of the Project Management Department at the Bonn International Center for Conversion GmbH (BICC), and a Program Officer in the Berlin office of The German Marshall Fund of the United States.

He holds a Doctorate in Law and Policy from Northeastern University as well as an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. He also studied at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Freie Universität in Berlin. Dr. Sokol is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and was awarded a Bundesverdienstkreuz in 2022.

Major General Wolf-Jürgen Stahl is the President of the Federal Academy for Security Policy. He brings a broad range of experience from the Bundeswehr to the BAKS. This includes several deployments abroad, most recently as commander in Afghanistan from 2017 to 2018, various functions in the Federal Ministry of Defense, including 2014 to 2017 as sub-department head, as well as several assignments in international NATO command authorities. Stahl was born in Hagen in 1964, is the father of three children and has been a soldier with heart and soul for over 40 years. Off duty, he is an honorary knight in the Order of St. John and enjoys hunting when time permits.

Johannes Steger heads the editorial team of Background Cybersecurity. He previously worked as a consultant for a technology consultancy and a communications consultancy. As an editor at Handelsblatt, he wrote about the start-up and technology scene in Germany and Israel. He was trained at the Georg von Holtzbrinck School for Business Journalists.

Juliana Suess is an Associate with the STAND Project (Strategic Threat Analysis and Nuclear (Dis-)Order) within the Research Group International Security at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). There she researches space security, deterrence and arms control. She also hosts the podcast War in Space, which discusses the intersection of international security and space. Juliana is an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), where she was previously Research Fellow for Space Security.

Friederike von Tiesenhausen is Global Head of Public Affairs and Head of External Relations for mid-Europe at Bloomberg LP. She is also a member of the board of Atlantik-Brücke. Prior to joining Bloomberg in 2018, she was Head Spokesperson for the German Federal Minister of Finance and head of the Ministry’s Media Division. Ms. von Tiesenhausen started her career as an Economics Reporter for the Financial Times in London and continued to work as political correspondent at Financial Times Deutschland in Berlin. Her professional experience also includes tenures as Project Lead at a think-tank and as a magazine feature writer. Ms. von Tiesenhausen studied Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge, England.

Ambassador Kurt Volker provides strategic advice to BGR on a full range of international issues and serves as a member of BGR’s advisory board. A former career member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service, he worked in official capacities for over 25 years under six presidential administrations. He served as U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations from 2017-2019, and U.S. Ambassador to NATO in 2008-2009.  He was Acting Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs for an extended period in 2008.  Other Foreign Service assignments include working with Senator John McCain and the Secretary General of NATO. From 2012-2019, Ambassador Volker was the founding Executive Director of The McCain Institute for International Leadership, a part of Arizona State University based in Washington, D.C.

Ambassador Volker has a B.A. from Temple University and an M.A. in International Relations from the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He has studied in Sweden and France and speaks Hungarian, Swedish, French, some Spanish, and is learning Georgian.

Since 2020, Sven Weizenegger has headed the Bundeswehr’s Cyber Innovation Hub, the „do tank“ of the German armed forces. In his role, he acts as chief transformer and mediator between the civilian and military systems, pursuing a clear goal: to enable the Bundeswehr to carry out its mission of national and alliance defense through digital excellence and technological sovereignty. „Technology and innovation are the keys to protecting and strengthening our democracy,“ emphasizes Weizenegger. Together with his interdisciplinary team of civilians and soldiers, he is fighting to drive change within the Bundeswehr – towards a modern culture of innovation that is up to the challenges of our time. Sven Weizenegger’s expertise is based, among other things, on his many years in management positions at corporations and start-ups. His pioneering achievement of advancing from the first official hacker at Deutsche Telekom to the board level, where he played a key role in establishing a new business area, demonstrates his transformational power. Under the leadership of Sven Weizenegger, the digital innovation unit CIHBw stands for transformation in the public sector and thus serves as a model for comparable units in other federal ministries and authorities.