Photo: Marc Darchinger

Background Discussions

Members of the Körber Network Foreign Policy regularly meet for background discussions with policy-makers and specialists. The discussions offer a chance for an open exchange of views, with the purpose of surpassing institutional barriers and stimulating common foreign and security policy ideas.

  • Foto: Körber-Stiftung/Gabsch
  • Foto: Körber-Stiftung/Gabsch
  • Foto: Körber-Stiftung/Gabsch
  • Foto: Körber-Stiftung/Gabsch
  • Foto: Körber-Stiftung/Gabsch
  • Foto: Körber-Stiftung/Gabsch
  • Foto: Körber-Stiftung

Previous Background Discussions

  • Alice Guitton, Vice President, Northern & Central Europe, Thales Group
  • Katia Papagianni, Director for Mediation Support and Policy, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) and Emanuel Hermann, Project Associate, Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD)
  • Joshua Walker, President and CEO, Japan Society
  • Nisreen Elsaim, Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow, Robert Bosch Academy; fmr. Chair, United Nations Secretary General’s Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change
  • Karma Ekmekji, Mediation Advisor, UN Women
  • Fiona Hill, Senior Fellow, Center on the United States and Europe, Brookings Institution
  • Anna Lührmann, Minister of State for Europe and Climate, Federal Foreign Office
  • H.E. Oleksii Makeiev, Ambassador of Ukraine to the Federal Republic of Germany
  • Khalil Dahbi, Research Fellow, German Institute for Global and Asia Studies (GIGA)
  • Rezaul Hasan Laskar, Foreign Affairs Editor, Hindustan Times
  • Eka Tkeshelashvili, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Georgia; Chief of Party, Support to Anti-Corruption Champion Institutions (SACCI) Program in Ukraine
  • Majda Ruge, Senior Policy Fellow, Wider Europe Programme, European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)
  • Julia Friedlander, CEO, Atlantik-Brücke e.V.
  • Joachim Gauck, former President, Federal Republic of Germany
  • Ahmed Rashid, Author and Journalist
  • Michael Angerer, Head of the NATO Division at the Federal Ministry of Defence
  • Sandro Gaycken, Founder and Director of the Digital Society Institute at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin
  • Francesca Bria, President of the Italian National Innovation Fund and former Chief Technical Officer in the city of Barcelona
  • Lorenz Narku Laing, Diversity Trainer and Founder of “Vielfaltsprojekte”
  • Souad Mekhennet, Correspondent , National Security Desk, The Washington Post
  • Galip Dalay, Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin
  • Jan Hecker, Foreign and Security Policy Advisor to the Chancellor; Anna Cavazzini, Member of the European Parliament; Jurij Aston, Head of Political Affairs and Head of the Council-Presidency 2020 Task Force at the Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic of Germany to the European Union and Knut Abraham, Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Warsaw
  • Fu Ying, Chairperson of the Center for International Security and Strategy (CISS) at Tsinghua University
  • Caroline Schmutte, Germany Office Lead at Wellcome Trust in Berlin
  • Jasmine El-Gamal, Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council
  • Susanne Koelbl, Foreign Correspondent, DER SPIEGEL
  • Delphine O, Ambassador-at-large; Secretary General, UN Forum for Generation Equality, Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Paris
  • Jeffrey Franks, Director of the International Monetary Fund’s Europe Office
  • Natalia Burlinova, Founder and President, The Public Initiative "Creative Diplomacy" (PICREADI); Ivan Kiseev, Director, Development in Russia & the CIS, Marriott International; Evgenia Makhmutova, Assistant Professor, Political Science Department, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation and Nikita Isaev, Leader, Novaya Russia
  • Katrin Bennhold, Berlin Bureau Chief, The New York Times
  • H.E. Jacek Czaputowicz, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Poland
  • Michael Dimock, President of Pew Research Center and Dominik Mutter, Head of Division in the Federal Chancellery
  • H.E. Richard A. Grenell, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Federal Republic of Germany
  • Hamid Karzai, Former President of Afghanistan (2004-14)
  • Jurij Aston, Deputy Head, Ukraine Task Force, Federal Foreign Office and Christian Pernhorst, Deputy Head, Division 205 (Russia, Belarus, Moldova, CIS; EU External Relations with Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus, Central Asia including the Eastern Partnership and the Black Sea Cooperation), Federal Foreign Office
  • Ronen Bergman, Senior Correspondent for Military and Intelligence Affairs, Yedioth Ahronoth in Tel Aviv
  • Svitlana Zalishchuk, MP, Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian Parliament
  • Parag Khanna, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore
  • Dmitri Trenin, Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center
  • Adnan Tabatabai, Author, CEO of the Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient (CARPO) in Bonn
  • Frederik Obermaier, Author, Journalist, Member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)
  • Hanna Hopko, MP, Head of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian Parliament
  • Kevin Rudd, Former Prime Minister of Australia, President of the Asia Society Policy Institute
  • Golineh Atai, Moscow Correspondent for the ARD
  • Jamal Khashoggi, General Manager and Editor-in-Chief, Al-Arab News Channel and Hossein Mousavian, Ambassador, Research Scholar, Program on Science and Global Security, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University
  • Lynn Kuok, Nonresident Fellow, Center for East Asia Policy Studies, Brookings Institution
  • Ben Barry, Senior Fellow for Land Warfare and Nick Childs, Senior Fellow for Naval Forces and Maritime Security, International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
  • Richard Bridge, Head of Government and Political Affairs, BP
  • Mark Lagon, President of Freedom House
  • Jakob Preuss, Documentary filmmaker
  • Amos Gilad, Director of Policy and Political-Military Affairs at the Israel Ministry of Defence
  • Kazem Sajjadpour, Director of the School of International Relations, Diplomacy and International Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran
  • Akiko Fukushima, Senior Fellow at The Tokyo Foundation
  • Ben Barry, Senior Fellow for Land Warfare and Douglas Barrie, Senior Fellow for Military Aerospace, International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
  • Joost Hiltermann, Program Director, Middle East and North Africa, International Crisis Group
  • Fyodor Lukyanov, Editor-in-Chief of the Moscow-based journal Russia in Global Affairs
  • Daniel Levy, Director of the MENA Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations and renowned Middle East expert
  • Sara Husseini, Communications Advisor at the Palestinian Negotiation Support Project
  • Yuval Diskin, Former director of the Israeli domestic security service Shin Bet
  • Brahma Chellaney, Professor for Strategic Studies, Centre for Policy Research
  • Robin Niblett, Director, Chatham House