Cliff Kupchan is an American political analyst and former government official. He is the chairman of the political risk consulting and advisory firm Eurasia Group, where he specializes in Russia and Iran. Kupchan has been described as a "leading expert" on Iran, [1] and has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin numerous times. [2]
Kupchan earned a bachelor's degree from Brown University and a master's degree in political science from Stanford University. [3]
Kupchan worked for government for many years before joining the private sector. He was senior foreign policy advisor for Eurasia on the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee. [4] Subsequently, Kupchan worked in the State Department during the Clinton administration as deputy coordinator of US assistance to Eurasia. [5]
From 2000 to 2002, Kupchan was the vice president of the Eurasia Foundation, during which time he lived in Russia and managed a staff of Russian nationals. He then went on to serve as vice president and senior fellow at the Center for the National Interest. [6]
In October 2014, Kupchan was named the chairman of Eurasia Group, replacing David F. Gordon. [7]
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan nonprofit organization. CFR is based in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, DC. Its membership has included senior politicians, numerous secretaries of state, CIA directors, bankers, lawyers, professors, corporate directors and CEOs, and senior media figures.
The Atlantic Council is an American think tank in the field of international affairs, favoring Atlanticism, founded in 1961. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic prosperity. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is a member of the Atlantic Treaty Association.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. From its founding in 1962 until 1987, it was an affiliate of Georgetown University, initially named the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University. The center conducts policy studies and strategic analyses of political, economic and security issues throughout the world, with a focus on issues concerning international relations, trade, technology, finance, energy and geostrategy.
Sigmar Hartmut Gabriel is a German politician who was the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018 and the vice-chancellor of Germany from 2013 to 2018. He was Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 2009 to 2017, which made him the party's longest-serving leader since Willy Brandt. He was the Federal Minister of the Environment from 2005 to 2009 and the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy from 2013 to 2017. From 1999 to 2003 Gabriel was Minister-President of Lower Saxony.
Thomas Reeve "Tom" Pickering is a retired United States ambassador. Among his many diplomatic appointments, he served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1989 to 1992.
The Munich Security Conference is an annual conference on international security policy that has been held in Munich, Bavaria, Germany since 1963. Formerly named the Munich Conference on Security Policy, the motto is: Peace through Dialogue. It is the world's largest gathering of its kind.
Richard Nathan Haass is an American diplomat. He was president of the Council on Foreign Relations from July 2003 to June 2023, prior to which he was director of policy planning for the United States Department of State and a close advisor to Secretary of State Colin Powell in the George W. Bush administration. In October 2022, Haass announced he would be departing from his position at CFR in June 2023. He was succeeded by former U.S. trade representative Michael Froman.
Robert Nicholas Burns is an American diplomat and academic who has served as the United States ambassador to China since 2022.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier is a German politician serving as president of Germany since 19 March 2017. He was previously federal minister of foreign affairs from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 to 2017, as well as vice chancellor of Germany from 2007 to 2009. Steinmeier was chairman-in-office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 2016.
Clifford D. May is an American journalist, editor, political activist, and podcast host. He is the founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank created shortly after the 9/11 attacks, where he hosts the podcast Foreign Podicy. He is the weekly "Foreign Desk" columnist for The Washington Times.
Niels Annen is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 2021. He served as Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office from 2018 to 2021 in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Celeste Ann Wallander is an American international relations advisor who currently serves as assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs at the United States Department of Defense.
Carlos Pascual is a Cuban-American diplomat and the former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico and Ukraine under President Barack Obama and Bill Clinton respectively. He served at the U.S. Agency for international Development from 1983 to 1995, and at the White House National Security Council from 1995 to 2000, ultimately as senior director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia. He was the State Department Coordinator for U.S. Assistance to Europe and Eurasia, and subsequently the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization from 2003 to 2005. Later he served at the Brookings institution and was appointed Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs at the State Department's Bureau of Energy from 2011 to 2014.
The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia is a geopolitical book by Aleksandr Dugin. Its publication in 1997 was well received in Russia; it has had significant influence within the Russian military, police, and foreign policy elites, and has been used as a textbook in the Academy of the General Staff of the Russian military. Powerful Russian political figures subsequently took an interest in Dugin, a Russian political analyst who espouses an ultranationalist and neo-fascist ideology based on his idea of neo-Eurasianism, who has developed a close relationship with Russia's Academy of the General Staff.
Brian H. Hook is an American diplomat, lawyer and government official. In 2021, he joined Cerberus Capital Management as vice chairman for global investments. He is an adjunct professor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.
The Center on Global Interests (CGI) is an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) research organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Center conducts research and analysis on global affairs, focusing on the Russia and the post-Soviet space. CGI was founded in 2012 by Nikolai Zlobin, a Russian-American foreign policy expert and author of multiple books on foreign affairs. It has often partnered with leading experts and officials from the United States and Russia, including security expert Pavel Baev, Ambassador Thomas Pickering, Ambassador Steven Pifer, and Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. Several of the Center's events have been broadcast on C-SPAN.
Angela E. Stent is a British born American foreign policy expert specializing in US and European relations with Russia and Russian foreign policy. She is Professor Emerita of Government and Foreign Service at Georgetown University and senior advisor and director emerita of its Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies. She is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. She has served in the Office of Policy Planning in the US State Department and as National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia.
Jacob Jeremiah Sullivan is an American attorney who currently serves as the United States national security advisor to President Joe Biden. He was previously director of policy to President Barack Obama, national security advisor to then Vice President Biden and deputy chief of staff to Secretary Hillary Clinton at the U.S. Department of State. Sullivan also served as senior advisor to the U.S. federal government at the Iran nuclear negotiations and senior policy advisor to Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, as well as visiting professor at Yale Law School.
Federica Mogherini is an Italian politician who served as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. She previously served as Italy's Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation from February 2014 to October 2014, in the centre-left Renzi Cabinet. She was a Member of the Chamber of Deputies (MP) from 2008 to 2014. In 2020 she was appointed rector of the College of Europe, a post-graduate university for European studies in Bruges (Belgium) and Natolin (Poland).
The Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, also known as the SDN List, is a United States government sanctions/embargo measure targeting U.S.-designated terrorists, officials and beneficiaries of certain authoritarian regimes, and international criminals. The list is managed by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). When individuals are added to the list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN), their U.S. assets are blocked. Moreover, their names are added to automated screening systems used by banks in the United States and many foreign countries, making it difficult for them to open or hold accounts, transfer monies, or transact property internationally. Any individual or entity that provides support related to terrorism, drug trafficking or unauthorized military use to any person or entity appearing on the SDN list risks being penalized under the USA PATRIOT Act.