Speakers

  Dr. Keith Goldstein is a cofounder of the Israeli Pirate Party. He served as the Treasurer of Pirate Parties International (PPI) for 3 years, the General Secretary for 3 years, and he is still currently a board member. As part of his PPI work, he oversees UN activities and statements, and recently he is leading an initiative to incorporate blockchain technologies into the organization. Keith holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, a masters in educational leadership, a second masters in Israeli society and politics, a PhD in sociology and anthropology, and post-doctoral fellowships in education. His research often focuses on big data analyses and statistical analyses of opinion surveys …

Manouchehr Shamsrizi “is among the most publicly prominent voices of Germany’s younger generation” Washington Post) and “everywhere where the improvement of political conditions still has considerable scope” (re:publica).   He is a co-founder of Humboldt University zu Berlin’s gamelab.berlin and a co-founder of the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Values at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, a collaboration with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus which he has initiated. Former Ariane de Rothschild Fellow of Innovative Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Cambridge and Global Justice Fellow at Yale University, a Fellow of the German Council on Foreign Relations, and was honoured as a Fellow of the Royal Society of …

Roderich Kiesewetter was born in Pfullendorf in southern Baden in 1963 and graduated from high school in Ellwangen in 1982. At that time, he already gained his first political experience in the SMV and the Schülerunion, founded a city youth ring and a local group of the International Society for Human Rights.     After graduating from high school, he joined the German Armed Forces and studied economics in Munich and in Austin/Texas, graduating with a degree in business administration. Until his election to the Bundestag in 2009, he was able to gain experience in the Balkans and Afghanistan, among other places. Especially stations at NATO in Brussels and at …

Anja Hirschel writes about herself: Professional activities After graduating from high school, I completed basic general training with the German Armed Forces. This was followed by studies in medical documentation and information technology at the University of Applied Sciences in Ulm (now University of Applied Science), where I graduated as a “Diplom Dokumentar (FH)”. In addition, I passed the exam to become a state-certified data protection officer. The topic of my diploma thesis was the validation of a globally implemented computer system in the field of pharmaceutical manufacturing in cooperation with Canada, India and Switzerland. (“Validation of a globally implemented computerized system”). After my studies I worked at the Institute …

Nina Azadi is born and raised in Iran/Tehran under the Islamic regime. Moved to Germany at the age of 13. She has a Master of Science in Business Mathematics, works in the financial sector and in the emerging Quantum Industry. She has been working on Iranian revolution issues since September 2022 and advocates for a proactive Iranian political strategy. “The Islamic regime is not only a threat to the Middle East, but also to the entire world, and we have reached a threshold where we must act. The JCPoA must be declared dead because it only helps the Islamic regime become a nuclear power.”  

  Theresa Fallon is the founder and director of the Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies (CREAS) in Brussels.     She is concurrently a member of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, a Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Adjunct Professor at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, a member of the CEPS Task Force on AI and Cybersecurity, a member of the Loisach Group on transatlantic relations, and a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. Theresa’s current research is on EU-Asia relations, maritime security, global governance, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and great power competition. She has testified …

  Dr. Benjamin Tallis joined DGAP in September 2022. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Alfred von Oppenheim Center for European Future Affairs and leads the project “Aktionswerkstatt Zeitenwende”.     Previously, he served the EU on security missions in Ukraine and the Balkans and worked as a policy officer at the European Competence Center for Civilian Crisis Management in Berlin. He spent five years at the Institute of International Relations Prague (IIR), where he directed the Center for European Security, advised numerous European governments, edited the journal New Perspectives, and organized the 2017 Prague Insecurity Conference. He then worked at the Institute for Peace Research and Security …

        Dr. Jo Zayner is a visionary biochemist and genetic designer. For over 15 years, they have pioneered work in the field of bioengineering, publishing a number of scientific papers on the topic. Jo received their PhD in Biophysics from the University of Chicago, winning several awards for their work on engineering proteins.     They then spearheaded work on developing engineered microbes for Mars terraforming at NASA, eventually leaving to start The ODIN, a bioengineering company based in Austin, Texas that is working to make genetic engineering accessible to everyone. Zayner’s groundbreaking work in human genetic engineering and medicine has been the focus of many documentaries, …