GMF Expert Briefing on G20 Summit and POTUS Visit to Poland
On June 30th, The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) hosted a conference call with Michał Baranowski, Derek Chollet, Sudha David-Wilp, and Dr. Daniel Twining previewing President Trump's upcoming trip to Poland and the G20 Summit in Germany.
Topics discussed:
Expectations for POTUS at G20, POTUS visit to Poland, U.S.-Russia Relations, G20 Agenda, German Presidency of G20, U.S.-German Relations, State of European Union, U.S.-China Relations, China-Russia Relations, Global Trade, and Counter-Terrorism
About the Experts:
Michał Baranowski is the director of GMF's Warsaw office, where he focuses on transatlantic relations, U.S. foreign policy, and the relations between the United States and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Prior to helping launch the Warsaw office, he served at GMF’s headquarters in Washington, DC, where he developed GMF’s programming in Poland and CEE. Before that posting, Baranowski worked in GMF’s Brussels office, where he focused on EU and U.S. policy toward Ukraine and Georgia, and where he also established the Young Transatlantic Network. He has published in Gazeta Wyborcza, Rzeczpospolita, the Warsaw Business Journal, the Kyiv Post, and GMF’s Transatlantic Take series. He is a member of the advisory council of the Institute for Western Affairs in Poznań, Poland. He holds a master's of European public affairs from Maastricht University, and has studied at Mercer University in the United States and the University of Oxford.
Derek Chollet is executive vice president and senior advisor for security and defense policy at The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), and author of the book, The Long Game: How Obama Defied Washington and Redefined America’s Role in the World (PublicAffairs, 2016). He is a contributing editor to Foreign Policy, where he coedits “Shadow Government,” and is a regular contributor to Defense One. He is also an advisor to Beacon Global Strategies and an adjunct senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. From 2012-15, Chollet was the U.S. assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, where he managed U.S. defense policy toward Europe (including NATO), the Middle East, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere. In that role, he was a senior advisor to two secretaries of defense, Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel. Prior to joining the Pentagon, Chollet served at the White House as special assistant to the president and senior director for strategic planning on the National Security Council Staff. From 2009-11, he was the principal deputy director of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Policy Planning Staff. From November 2008 to January 2009, he was a member of the Obama-Biden presidential transition team. During the Clinton administration, Chollet served as chief speechwriter for UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and as special adviser to Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. From 2002-04, Chollet was foreign policy advisor to U.S. Senator John Edwards (D-NC), both on his legislative staff and during the 2004 Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign.
Sudha David-Wilp is a senior transatlantic fellow and deputy director of the Berlin office. She joined GMF’s Berlin office in September 2011. She oversees GMF’s Congress-Bundestag Forum, a joint program with the Robert Bosch Foundation, and engages with the media as an expert on German–U.S. relations. Before moving to Berlin, she was the director of international programs at the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress in Washington, DC, for nearly eight years. At the Association, David-Wilp was responsible for congressional study groups and international programs for current members of Congress and senior congressional staff. She established a trilateral roundtable format for legislators and launched a speakers’ program involving current and former lawmakers. She received her bachelor’s from Johns Hopkins University, with a major in international relations and a minor in writing seminars. She received her master’s in international relations from Columbia University.
Daniel Twining is counselor and director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, based in Washington, DC. As counselor, he serves on the executive management team that governs GMF’s research, convening, leadership development, and grantmaking. As director of the Asia Program, he leads a 15-member team working on the rise of Asia and its implications for the West through a program of convening and research spanning East, South, and Southeast Asia. Dr. Twining previously served as a Member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, as the Foreign Policy Advisor to U.S. Senator John McCain, and as a staff member of the U.S. Trade Representative. He is an Associate of the U.S. National Intelligence Council, has taught at Georgetown University, and served as a military instructor associated with the Naval Postgraduate School. He holds a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and MPhil & DPhil degrees from Oxford University, where he was the Fulbright/Oxford Scholar from 2004-07. He writes regular columns for Nikkei and Foreign Policy and has served as an advisor to six presidential campaigns.