SPEAKER BIOS
Dr. Nelli Babayan is senior researcher and lecturer at the Center for Transnational, Foreign and Security Policy at Freie Universität Berlin, where she has also coordinated a work package of EU-FP7 TRANS-WORLD project. In 2005-2008 she worked for Core Media Support Program for Armenia implemented by IREX and funded by USAID, where she was Training Department Manager in 2006-2008. She has also been a visiting researcher and lecturer at the University of Tartu, ETH Zurich, and FRIDE Madrid. Her research and teaching interests include democratization/democracy promotion (by the US and the EU), transatlantic relations, post-Soviet politics, and internet politics. Her latest publications include “Democratic Transformation and Obstruction: EU, US, and Russia in the South Caucasus” (2015) and a special issue of the journal Democratization (2015, co-edited with Thomas Risse). She received her PhD in International Studies from the University of Trento, Italy (2012) and her MA in Political Science from the Central European University, Hungary (2005).
Prof. Margarita Balmaceda is Professor of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dr. Balmaceda teaches courses on the Politics of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity, on Post-Soviet and East European Politics and Foreign Policies. She is an Associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. A specialist on the comparative energy politics of the post-Soviet states, since 2000 she has been “following the pipeline” – i.e. following the complex web of interconnections that accompany the energy relationship between Russian oil and gas producers, post-Soviet transit states, and European consumers. This research agenda has taken her on multiple field research stays in Eastern Europe and the former USSR, including Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Hungary and Moldova. Fluent in Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, German, near-fluent in Hungarian and with a good working knowledge of Belarusian, Dr. Balmaceda feels very much at home almost everywhere in Eastern Europe. And with the strong international presence at the School of Diplomacy and International Relations, she is happy to use her language skills in many one-to one discussions with her students.
Adrian A. Basora, former U.S. Ambassador, is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and Director of the Project on Democratic Transitions, an in-depth assessment of the political, economic and social transitions of postcommunist Europe/Eurasia twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Mr. Basora also serves as Past President and trustee of Eisenhower Fellowships, actively participating in an EF global leadership network that includes the former President of Turkey, a recent Prime Minister of Taiwan and over 100 past and current cabinet ministers, plus several hundred other leaders such as CEOs, university rectors and NGO and media directors in over 50 key countries. Earlier, as U.S. Ambassador in Prague, 1992–95, Mr. Basora worked with Czech and Slovak leaders to assure a successful transition during the periods preceding and following Czechoslovakia’s “Velvet Divorce.” He led implementation of American assistance programs and guided U.S. policy in support of the Czech transition to a successful market economy and consolidated democracy, thus helping to lay the groundwork for Czech entry into NATO, the OECD and the European Union.
William Burke-White, PhD, is Richard Perry Professor and Inaugural Director, Perry World House at University of Pennsylvania. Burke-White is an expert on international law and global governance and served in the Obama Administration from 2009-2011 on Secretary Clinton’s Policy Planning Staff, providing the Secretary direct policy advice on multilateral diplomacy and international institutions. He was principal drafter of the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), Secretary Clinton’s hallmark foreign policy and institutional reform effort. Burke-White has written extensively in the fields of international law and institutions, with focus on international criminal and international economic law. His work has addressed issues of post-conflict justice; the International Criminal Court; international human rights, and international arbitration. His current research explores gaps in the global governance system and the challenges of international legal regulation in a world of rising powers and divergent interests. In 2008 he received the A. Leo Levin Award and in 2007 the Robert A. Gorman award for Excellence in Teaching.
Agnia Grigas, PhD, is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and a nonresident Senior Fellow at the McKinnon Center for Global Affairs at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Professor Grigas is an energy and political risk expert specializing in Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Post-Soviet space. An author of three books and frequent media contributor, she has more than a decade of experience consulting in the public and private sectors. She is the author of Beyond Crimea: The New Russian Empire (Yale University Press, 2016) and The Politics of Energy and Memory between the Baltic States and Russia (Ashgate, 2013). As a researcher, she collaborates with prominent American and European institutions. Previously, she has published studies for The Royal Institute of International Affairs(Chatham House), Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, Johns Hopkins APL, and Notre Europe Jacques Delors Institute.
Jakub Grygiel is a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Program on National Security and the George H.W. Bush Associate Professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University. His areas of expertise include Eastern Europe; Russia and the former Soviet Union, as well as American foreign policy, international relations, and strategic and security Issues. He is an International Affairs columnist for Giornale del Popolo in Switzerland and Il Mondo in Italy, where he has written on the end of communism, the revival of Russian nationalism and other topics related to the history, economics and politics of Central and Eastern Europe. He was editor of the Journal of Public and International Affairs, and served as a consultant to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris and to the World Bank. He is author of Great Powers and Geopolitical Change (2006) and has published in Orbis as well as other journals.
John R. Haines is a trustee of the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), where he is a member of its executive, finance, and nominating committees, Executive Director of FPRI’s Princeton Committee, and is also a Senior Fellow. An active investor and entrepreneur whose current efforts focus on nuclear smuggling and terrorism, in 2010 John co-founded, as Chief Executive Officer, Ionetix Corporation, to develop proprietary particle accelerator and fissile material detection technologies. In a different field altogether, he earlier co-founded a human stem cell therapeutics company that developed what Nature ranked as the second most dominant stem cell patent estate worldwide. Beginning his career as a mathematical economist, Haines also spent time professionally in maritime operations and in government. John holds advanced degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Fels Scholar, and from the University’s Graduate School of Medicine; and from King’s College London. He also studied at Stanford and UC Berkeley. A life member of both the United States Naval War College Foundation and the United States Naval Institute, he is also a member of the executive committee of the Friends of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
John E. Herbst, former U.S. Ambassador, is Director of the Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center. He served for thirty-one years as a Foreign Service Officer in the US Department of State, retiring at the rank of Career-Minister. He was US Ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006, when he worked to enhance US-Ukrainian relations, help ensure the conduct of a fair Ukrainian presidential election, and prevent violence during the Orange Revolution. Prior to that, he was Ambassador to Uzbekistan (2000-03), where he played a critical role in the establishment of an American base to help conduct Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. In his last four years at the State Department, he served as the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, leading the US government’s civilian capacity in societies in transition from conflict or civil strife, and to provide support to countries at risk of instability. He has received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, the Secretary of State’s Career Achievement Award, and the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award.
Michael Horowitz, PhD, is Associate Professor of Political Science at University of Pennsylvania and the associate director of Penn’s Perry World House. He is the author of the new book, Why Leaders Fight, and previously authored the award-winning book, The Diffusion of Military Power: Causes and Consequences for International Politics. His research interests include military innovation, the role of leaders in international politics, forecasting, and the relationship between religion and international politics. He has published in a wide array of peer reviewed journals, as well as more popular outlets such as the New York Times and Politico. Professor Horowitz previously worked for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy in the Department of Defense as an International Affairs Fellow. He is affiliated with the Foreign Policy Research Institute, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Center for a New American Security. He is also a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He has held fellowships at the Weatherhead Center, Olin Institute, and Belfer Center at Harvard, where he received his PhD in Government. Professor Horowitz received his BA in political science from Emory University.
Dr. Marie Mendras is a research fellow at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Center for International Research and Study (CERI), and an International Affairs professor at Sciences Po in Paris. Previously, she was a full-time professor of Government at the London School of Economics, and has taught at Université Paris 1-Sorbonne, Université Paris 10-Nanterre, Université de Louvain/Leuven, École des Mines in Paris, and Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). Prior to teaching, Dr. Mendras worked as a consultant at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dr. Mendras is on the editorial board of the journals Esprit (Paris) and Pro et Contra (Moscow); her books include Russian Politics: the Paradox of a Weak State (2012). She holds a doctorate in Political Science from Sciences Po.
Dr. Andrew Moravcsik is the Founding Director of the European Union Program and a professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance and on the Executive Committee of the Bobst Center for Peace and Justice at Princeton. Prior to this, Dr. Moravcsik was a professor in the Department of Government and Harvard University, where he received his PhD in 1992. Since 2004 he has been a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and he currently serves as Book Review Editor (Europe) at Foreign Affairs. His books include The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht (1998) and European Union and World Politics (2013).
Phil Nichols, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the institutions of international trade – primarily the World Trade Organization – and on the institutional changes occurring in emerging economies. Professor Nichols has also conducted substantial research on corruption. He also teaches courses on emerging economies and on international business transactions. Professor Nichols also serves the University as the Faculty Director of College Houses and Academic Services, and as the Faculty Master of Stouffer College House. Outside of the University, Professor Nichols holds the co-chair position of the Law Group of UN/CEFACT, and serves as co-chair of the International Economic Law Group of the American Society of International Law.
Mitchell A. Orenstein, PhD, is a Professor of Central and East European politics in the Slavic Department of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA and Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia Program. Professor Orenstein’s published work has explored the political economy of transition in Central and Eastern Europe, pension privatization worldwide, and the role of policy paradigms in economic reform. His research lies at the intersection of comparative politics, international political economy, and global public policy. His books include Out of the Red: Building Capitalism and Democracy in Post-Communist Europe (2001) and Privatizing Pensions: The Transnational Campaign (2008). He is currently working on a jointly authored book manuscript on the Triumph and Crisis of Neoliberalism in Eastern Europe and a new book project on Russia vs Europe and the Lands in Between. He is a frequent contributor to Foreign Affairs and his academic articles have appeared in Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Europe-Asia Studies, Governance, Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of Democracy, Journal of European Public Policy, and Post-Soviet Affairs.
Kevin M. F. Platt, PhD, is Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Graduate Chair of the Comparative Literature Program. He works on representations of Russian history, Russian historiography, history and memory in Russia, Russian lyric poetry, and global post-Soviet Russian culture.
Alina Polyakova, PhD, is the Deputy Director of the Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council, where she oversees the Ukraine in Europe Initiative. Dr. Polyakova is a frequent media commentator on developments in Ukraine, Russia, and Europe. She is a Swiss National Science Foundation Senior Research Fellow and coinvestigator on a multi-year project examining the rise of far-right political parties in the European Union in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Concurrently, she is a 2015-16 Eurasia Foundation Fellow. Before joining the Atlantic Council, she was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Fulbright Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX), and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bern. Previously, Dr. Polyakova served as an adviser to non-governmental organizations in Europe and the United States working to promote democratic transparency, accountability, and governance reform in Eastern Europe generally and in Ukraine particularly, including most recently the Open Government Partnership.
Charles E. Ryan, also known as Charlie, is a Co-founder of Deutsche UFG and serves as its Chief Executive Officer and Chairman. From 1991 to 1994, he was an Associate and Principal Banker with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. His professional career combines top-level expertise and deep knowledge of both Russian and international markets, and began in 1989 with CS First Boston, where he was a Financial Analyst. Dr. Ryan Co-founded ZAO Deutsche Securities and served as its Chief Executive Officer. He has been Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank – Russia since February 28, 2006 and serves as its Chief Country Officer. He is a General Partner and Partner of Almaz Capital Partners. In 1996, he also founded UFG Asset Management and serves as its Chairman and Managing Director. Dr. Ryan was a Venture Partner of Almaz Capital Partners. Dr. Ryan was employed at of Delta Private Equity Partners. He served as the Chief Country Officer of Deutsche Bank AG from February 28, 2006 to May 2008. He was a Venture Partner of Runa Capital. Until August 2008, He served as Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank OOO. He served as the Chief Country Officer of Deutsche Bank OOO (also known as Deutsche Bank Ltd.) until August 2008 and was also its Senior Advisor. Upon starting UFG, he worked close closely with Deutsche Bank and served as Country Manager. He has been Chairman of Trans-Siberian Gold plc since June 30, 2014. He has been the Chairman of UFG Asset Management since 2008. He graduated with honors in Government from Harvard College.
Rudra Sil, PhD, is Professor of Political Science and the SAS Director of the Huntsman Program in International Studies & Business. His research and teaching interests encompass comparative politics, international relations, Russian/post-communist studies, Asian studies, labor politics, development studies, qualitative methodology, and the philosophy of the social sciences. He is author of Managing ‘Modernity’: Work, Community, and Authority in Late-Industrializing Japan and Russia (2002) and Beyond Paradigms: Analytic Eclecticism in the Study of World Politics (2010), coauthored with Peter Katzenstein. The latter was one of thirteen titles in international relations honored as a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title in 2011. Professor Sil’s articles have appeared in a wide range of journals, including Perspectives on Politics, Journal of Theoretical Politics, International Studies Quarterly, International Studies Review, Studies in Comparative International Development, Europe-Asia Studies, and Post-Soviet Affairs. He is also author of more than a dozen book chapters and coeditor of four volumes, including The Politics of Labor in a Global Age (2001) and Reconfiguring Institutions Across Time and Space (2007). Professor Sil is currently working on two books, Russia Reconsidered: The Fate of a Former Superpower, and Pathways of the Post-communist Proletariat. Some of the research for the latter book was presented in a paper (comparing Czech and Polish labor relations) that received the Award for Best Paper in Labor Studies presented at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA).
Timothy Snyder, PhD, is Bird White Housum Professor of History at Yale University. Prof. Snyder received his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1997, where he was a British Marshall Scholar. Before joining the faculty at Yale in 2001, he held fellowships in Paris and Vienna, and an Academy Scholarship at Harvard. He is the author of five award-winning books, including: Nationalism, Marxism, and Modern Central Europe: A Biography of Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz (Harvard Press, 1998); The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999 (Yale Press, 2003); Sketches from a Secret War: A Polish Artist’s Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine (Yale Press, 2005); The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of A Habsburg Archduke (Basic Books, 2008). He is also the co-editor of two books Wall Around the West: State Power and Immigration Controls in Europe and North America (Rowman and Littlefield, 2001) and Stalin and Europe: War, Terror, Domination (forthcoming). In 2010 he published Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, a history of Nazi and Soviet mass killing on the lands between Berlin and Moscow. It has received a number of honors, including the Leipzig Prize for European Understanding and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award in the Humanities. It was named a book of the year by some dozen publications, has been translated into more than twenty languages, and was a bestseller in four countries.
Dr. Ulrich Speck is a Senior Fellow at the Transatlantic Academy in Washington, DC. His work is focused on German and EU foreign policy, the EU’s relations with Eastern Europe and Russia, and transatlantic relations. From 2013 to 2015 Speck was a Visiting Scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels and a foreign policy columnist for Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung. He has been an Associate at FRIDE, Madrid; the editor of the Global Europe Morning Brief, a subscriber-only newsletter on EU foreign policy; and worked for RFE/RL in Prague and Brussels. From 2000 to 2005 he was a senior editor at Frankfurter Rundschau, a German newspaper. Speck has co-edited three books (in German): On the Revolution of 1848/89 (1998), American Empire (2003), and New Anti-Semitism (2004). He holds a PhD in modern history from the University of Frankfurt and was a member of the Graduate College for the history of law at Frankfurt University from 1992-95.
Dr. Stephen F. Szabo is the Executive Director of the Transatlantic Academy (TA). As Executive Director, Dr. Szabo works with the partners of the TA to shape the research content of each term, to assist in the recruitment and selection of Fellows and to manage the Academy. Prior to joining GMF, Dr. Szabo had been with the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, where he served as Academic and Interim Dean as well as Professor of European Studies. Prior to that he had served as Professor of National Security Affairs at the National Defense University and Chairman of West European Studies at the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State. He has written on German foreign and security policies, generational