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Adis Ahmetović has been a directly elected member of the German Bundestag since 2021 and foreign policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group since May 2025. After completing degrees in political science and German studies at Leibniz University Hannover, he embarked on his political career, starting out as office manager for and personal advisor to the former Minister President of Lower Saxony, Stephan Weil. In the Bundestag, Ahmetović has established himself as an expert for the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Konstantin Bärwaldt is Head of the Department for Global and European Policy of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Previously, he coordinated the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's global peace and security policy programme and represented the FES in the Working Group on Peace and Development (FriEnt). From 2013 to 2016, he was head of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's office in Myanmar. His main interests are international processes, changes in the global system and strengthening peace and security.
Sophia Besch is a senior fellow in the Europe Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her area of expertise is European defense policy. Before joining Carnegie, Sophia was a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform (CER) in London and Berlin and has also worked with the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies and the Atlantic Council's Europe Centre. She holds a doctorate in European Studies from King’s College London, and degrees in international relations and international security from Sciences Po Paris and the London School of Economics.
Dan Carden is the Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton, first elected in 2017. A native Liverpudlian and the son of a dockworker, he read International Relations at the London School of Economics, where he also chaired the Labour Club. Before entering Parliament, he worked at Unite the Union, helping to advance the interests of working people in the industrial heartlands that shaped his own upbringing.
Hélène Conway-Mouret currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces Committee (CAED) and Vice-President of the French Senate, representing French citizens abroad. She continues her work as rapporteur for the Armed Force Equipment Program 146 of the European Union. As a member of the Socialist Party, she is also active in several foundations and networks. In addition she is a university professor and colonel in the French Air Force citizens’ reserve.
Mircea Geoană served as NATO’s Deputy Secretary General from 2019 to 2024. As the Alliance’s “innovation champion” and Chair of NATO’s Innovation Board, he contributed to the creation of the Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) and the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF). He played a key role in strengthening transatlantic security, advancing NATO’s defense strategy and fostering global partnership. He is a prominent public figure in Romania, with a distinguished domestic and international career, as an Ambassador of Romania to the US, Minister of Foreign Affairs or President of the Romanian Senate.
Sebastian Hartmann has been a member of the German Bundestag for the SPD since 2013, serving as Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Defence from 2025 onwards. He was the domestic policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, among other positions.
Mary Kaldor is Professor Emeritus of Global Governance and Director of the of the Conflict and Civicness Research Programme in LSE IDEAS at The London School of Economics and Political Science. She has pioneered the concepts of new wars and global civil society. Her elaboration of the real-world implementation of human security has directly influenced European and national governments. Most recently she was a member of the United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters.
Neil Melvin is Director, International Security at RUSI, where he leads the team focusing on emerging global and regional security dynamics in and across Europe, Russia and Eurasia, the Indo-Pacific, the Gulf and Middle East, and Latin America. His current research is focused on the impact on European and international security of Russia’s war in Ukraine and on the question of how to build shared deterrence and defence to meet existing and emerging security threats facing European countries. Neel Melvin holds a DPhil from Oxford University.
Lukas Mengelkamp is a researcher for the research and transfer project “Arms Control and Emerging Technologies” at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy (IFSH), University of Hamburg. His research focuses on nuclear deterrence, conventional defence, arms control and NATO. Having studied history and political science at the University of Bonn, Lukas then completed his doctoral thesis at Marburg University.
Siemtje Möller has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2017 and deputy chair of the SPD parliamentary group since 2025. She is a deputy member of both the Defence Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee. Between 2021 and 2025, Siemtje was Parliamentary State Secretary for Defence. She is a qualified teacher, having studied French, Spanish and politics.
Heljä Ossa is a Research Fellow at LSE IDEAS, working on non-nuclear deterrence. Her areas of expertise include European security and defence policy, NATO, transatlantic relations, and Finnish foreign policy. Heljä Ossa holds a PhD in Military Sciences from the Finnish National Defence University, with her dissertation focusing on European strategic autonomy from the US perspective.
Boris Pistorius has been Federal Minister of Defence since January 19, 2023. Before from 2013 on, he was Minister of the Interior and Sport in Lower Saxony. From 2006 until 2013, he was lord mayor of Osnabrück city. Before he studied law at the Osnabrück and Münster universities, he did his military service.
Marcel Röthig has been the Resident Representative for the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan since October 2022. He has been with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung since 2013, being previously Resident Representative in Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and Deputy Director in the Russian Federation. He studied Political Sciences in Berlin and worked as assistant to several members of the German Bundestag.
Christoph Schmid has been a member of the German Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party (SPD) since 2021. He is a member of the Parliamentary Defence Committee. From 2008 to 2021 he was mayor of Alerheim (Bavaria). Schmid studied political science, intercultural communication and market and advertising psychology at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Before entering politics, he worked as a sales and personnel manager and as an employment agent.
Martin Schulz is President of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. From 2017 to 2021 he was a Member of the German Bundestag. He was party chairman of the SPD, candidate for chancellor-ship and longtime member of the European Parliament, where he served as president in two terms from 2012 to 2017.
Martin Schulz is a laureate of the Charlemagne Prize for his outstanding contribution to the strengthening of the European Parliament and democratic legitimacy in the EU.
Adrienne Woltersdorf has headed the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) office in Paris since summer 2023. Prior to this, she was head of the FES Communications Unit at the foundation’s headquarters in Berlin and of the Office for Regional Cooperation in Asia, based in Singapore. From 2012 to 2015, she represented the FES in Kabul, Afghanistan. Before working for the foundation, Adrienne spent 18 years as a journalist and political correspondent. She has a master’s in Sinology, political science and modern history from the Freie Universität Berlin, as well as a Chinese Proficiency Certificate from Shandong University, People’s Republic of China (PRC).
