Niels Annen has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2013, where he was already a member from 2005 to 2009. From 2018 to 2021, he was Minister of State to the Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs, and since 2021 he has been Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development. He was federal chairman of the Jusos from 2001 to 2004.
Twitter: @NielsAnnen
Jean Asselborn has been Luxembourg's Minister for Foreign and European Affairs since 2004 and Minister for Immigration and Asylum since 2014. Until December 2013, Jean Asselborn was also Deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg.
Prof. Dr. Peter Brandt is a retired professor of modern and contemporary history. He is a member of the Historical Commission at the SPD party executive and on the board of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V.. He is also deputy chairman of the Willy-Brandt-Kreis e.V. and co-editor of the anthology "...but we have a chance!" on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Egon Bahr.
Richard Burt served as U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 1985 to 1989. Upon his return to the United States, Burt was appointed by President George Bush as chief negotiator in the START negotiations with the Soviet Union, a position he held until 1991.
Dr. Sabine Fandrych is an executive board member of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. She previously headed the Fritz-Erler-Forum, the Baden-Württemberg regional office of the FES, and then the Political Academies Department. For the FES and the GIZ, Dr. Sabine Fandrych worked in Ethiopia and Angola.
Heinz Fischer was Austria's Federal President from 2004 to 2016. Between 1983 and 1987, he was already Austria's Minister of Science. Heinz Fischer's friendship with Egon Bahr was marked by personal encounters and a constant exchange of letters.
Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Giessmann is Director Emeritus of the Berghof Foundation and Senior Advisor for the Berghof projects in Afghanistan and Ethiopia. He was Executive Director of Berghof Conflict Research (2008-2011) and of the Berghof Foundation (2012 to 2019). Prior to joining Berghof, he was Deputy Director at the University of Hamburg (IFSH).
He is currently serving his fourth consecutive term as a member of the Advisory Board for Civilian Crisis Prevention at the German Foreign Office. He is also a board member of the German Atlantic Society, an elected member of the Social Science Class of the Leibniz Societät, and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Center for Conflict Research at the University of Marburg. He is also a guest lecturer on negotiation techniques at the Global Campus of Human Rights in Venice-Lido (Italy).
Franziska Giffey is Berlin's governing mayor. She is also co-chairwoman of the Berlin SPD and a member of the Berlin House of Representatives for the constituency of Rudow in Neukölln.
Lars Klingbeil is the federal chairman of the SPD alongside Saskia Esken. He has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2009, where he was a member of the defense committee, among other things.
Twitter: @larsklingbeil
Dr. Reinhard Krumm heads the Baltic States Office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Previously, he headed the FES Regional Office for Cooperation and Peace in Europe, based in Vienna. He teaches Russian history at the University of Regensburg and worked as a journalist (including as a correspondent for DER SPIEGEL) in Russia in the 1990s.
Rüdiger Lüdeking is a diplomat. His activities focus on arms control and disarmament. Between 1987 and 1990, he was Deputy Head of the Delegation to the Geneva Conference on Disarmament and between 2001 and 2005 Head of the Department for Nuclear Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. In 2008, Lüdeking became Germany's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Vienna and subsequently Permanent Representative to the OSCE. Most recently, he served as German ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium.
Lyudmyla Melnyk is a research fellow at the Institute for European Politics (IEP) in Berlin. She leads Ukraine-related projects, including the German-Ukrainian Researchers Network (GURN) and the Core of Excellence "ReLoaD - Research on Local Governance and Decentralisation". She is also committed to the expansion of German-Ukrainian relations, knowledge transfer and the strengthening of Ukraine expertise in Germany as well as the teaching of intercultural competence. She studied translation with a focus on consecutive and simultaneous interpreting as well as inter- and transcultural studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and holds a Master's degree in German Studies from the Lessja Ukrainka University Wolhynien, Luzk/ Ukraine.
Twitter: @LjudmylaMelnyk
Dr. Irina Mohr is head of the department for engagement, qualification and digital education at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V. She is also a member of the board of the Willy-Brandt-Kreis e.V.
Prof. Dr. Nele Noesselt holds the Chair of Political Science with a focus on China/East Asia at the University of Duisburg-Essen. In 2018, Nomos published the second edition of her textbook Chinese Politics: National and Global Dimensions.
Prof. Dr. Götz Neuneck is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg. After receiving his doctorate from the University of Hamburg, he was a research associate under Egon Bahr and Dieter S. Lutz at IFSH. He is an expert on arms control, disarmament, new technologies, nuclear weapons, verification, science Diplomacy, missile defense, and space armament. He is engaged among other things on the board of the German Physical SocietyChairman of the working group "Physics and Disarmament" and member of the Council of the PugwashConferences on Science and World Affairs. In addition is he member of the Willy Brandt Circle.
Kevin Rudd was Prime Minister of Australia between 2007 and 2010 and subsequently also served as Australia's Foreign Minister in Prime Minister Gillard's Cabinet. Kevin Rudd previously served in his country's diplomatic service and is a trained sinologist.
Prof. Dr. Gwendolyn Sasse isacademic director at the Center for Eastern European and International Studies and Einstein Professor for Comparative Democracy and Authoritarianism at Humboldt University in Berlin . In addition, the non-resident is a senior fellow at the think tank Carnegie Europe. Her academic career began with studies in history, Slavic studies and political science at the University of Hamburg and led to an MSc and PhD in political science at the London School of Economics.
Martin Schulz is Chairman of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V.. He was a member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 2017 and its president from 2012. In the previous legislative period, Martin Schulz was also a member of the German Bundestag and served as chairman of the SPD from 2017 to 2018.
Prof. Dr. Michael Staack is Professor of Theory and Empiricism of International Relations at Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg. His research interests focus on German foreign policy and the European peace order. Since 2014, he has been a member of the High-Level Advisory Group of the Foreign Ministers of Germany and South Korea on foreign policy aspects of Korean reunification.
Liew Chin Tong is ahe former Malaysian Deputy Minister of Defense and involved in the Democratic Action Party, Malaysia's social democratic party. Since 1999, Chin Tong has worked for DAP in various capacities and is now a member of the Central Executive Committee, where he serves as National Director of Civic Education.
Twitter: @liewchintong
Dr. Dmitri Trenin is Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center and is one of Russia's leading experts on foreign policy. He previously served in the Soviet and Russian armies and participated in the Geneva talks between the USSR and the USA on nuclear weapons. His commentaries appear regularly in the German and international press, including the IPG Journal.
Twitter: Dmitri Trenin
Prof. Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker is Honorary President International Club of Rome and Honorary Professor (Environmental and Climate Policy) at the University of Freiburg. He served as Co-President of the Club of Rome Germany between 2012 and 2018 and as a member of the German Bundestag between 1998 and 2005.
Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul is Chairperson of the Willy Brandt Circle and in this capacity draws on her many years of experience as Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development. She was also a member of the German Bundestag from 1987 to 2013. In addition to her involvement in the Willy Brandt Circle, Wieczorek-Zeul is Vice-President of the Friends of the Global Fund Europe and a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development.
Prof. Zhou Hong is Chair of European Politics and Modern History and Director of the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). She is also chair of the Chinese Society for European Studies. Zhou is an elected member of the Academic Departments of CASS and Deputy Director General of the Academic Department of International Studies of CASS. She was elected as a permanent member of the China Economic and Social Council, vice president of the China Association for International Relations, and vice president of the board of the China Reform Forum. She was also appointed Special Advisor to the Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.