Speakers 2023

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, …

Work experience 09/22 – today German Bundestag, Office of Tobias B. Bacherle, MdB, Berlin Research assistant for digital and foreign policy Head of the Office of the Chairman of the Committee on Digital Affairs Preparation and monitoring of digital policy work in the committees for Digital Affairs, for European Affairs and for Foreign Affairs Drafting policy positions, in particular on international digital policy, digital foreign policy, the intersection of security and technology Preparation of speeches and appointments 10/21 – 09/22 Mercator College for International Affairs Graduate program of the Federal Foreign Office, the German National Academic Foundation and the Mercator Foundation for the promotion of young professionals in international cooperation …

  Dr. Laeed Zaghlami Education: PHD level University of Algiers Political Communication, Image Perception and Reception  PHD Algiers University 3 University of Surrey, UK [1986-1989] MPHIL degree Media and Social Research Methods; Media Coverage of Wapping Dispute and Readers’s Attitudes and Perception International Academy of Broadcasting Montreux,  CH 1994-1995; Diploma Arts, Sciences & Technologies of Broadcasting. University of Algiers First Degree (licence) 1976-1981 Social Sciences Dept Algiers University MEMBERSHIP OF PROFESSIONAL BODIES: Elected 1998 to 2004 Member of European Broadcasting Union Steering Committee, International Press Institute Vienna, International Mass Communication Research Association Algeria. Professor Algiers University3 and Associate professor National High School of Politics Algiers, Expert with Algerian Diplomatic Institute …

Georg Löfflmann is Assistant Professor in War Studies and US Foreign Policy at the Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS) at the University of Warwick in the UK. He is the author of American Grand Strategy Under Obama: Competing Discourses (Edinburgh University Press,2017) and several articles on US foreign and security policy and international security, including in Survival, International Politics, Geopolitics, and Critical Studies on Security.   His latest book project, under contract with Routledge, examines the role of populist security narratives under the Trump presidency

  Gustav Gressel is a senior policy fellow with the Wider Europe Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Berlin office. His topics of focus include Russia, Eastern Europe, and defense policy. Before joining ECFR, Gressel worked as a desk officer for international security policy and strategy in the Bureau for Security Policy of the Austrian Ministry of Defence from 2006 to 2014, and as a research fellow of the Commissioner for Strategic Studies with the Austrian MoD from 2003 to 2006. He was also a research fellow with the International Institute for Liberal Politics in Vienna. Before his academic career he served five years in the Austrian Armed Forces. Gressel holds a PhD in …