Brussels Forum Session: NATO at 75: Looking Ahead to the Washington Summit

Julianne Smith was appointed US permanent representative to NATO in November 2021. She was previously a senior advisor to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and director of GMF’s Asia and Geopolitics programs.

Smith served as director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) from 2014 to 2018. She was acting national security advisor and deputy national security advisor to the US vice president from 2012 to 2013. Before that, she served for three years as the principal director for European and NATO policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon. She was awarded the Medal for Exceptional Public Service in 2012.

Prior to her government service, Smith held various positions at research institutions including the Center for Strategic and International Studies and GMF.  

Smith has written extensively on transatlantic relations and European security. She is a recipient of the Richard von Weizsäcker Fellowship at the Bosch Academy in Berlin and the Fredin Memorial Scholarship for study at the Sorbonne. She received the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2017.

Brussels Forum Session: Building for the Future: A Green Marshall Plan for Ukraine   

Gulnara Roll is secretary to the Intergovernmental Committee on Urban Development, Housing and Land Management at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in Geneva. As the committee secretary, she facilitates cooperation among senior government officials and relevant stakeholders working on urban and housing issues in UNECE’s 56 member States. Roll also manages multiple technical cooperation activities in countries with economies in transition in eastern and southeastern Europe, including a project for the reconstruction of the cities of Kharkiv and Mykolaiv in Ukraine.  

Roll has been with the UN since 2009, and hasheld the positions of regional advisor on urban development and housing at UNECE; and senior economic affairs officer at the UN Regional Commissions Office in New York. Prior to joining the UN, Roll worked in academia and management of international programs on environment, urban planning, and regional development in Tartu, Estonia and Brussels, Belgium. Gulnara’s educational background is in environmental sciences and policy, and human geography. She also holds an Executive MBA in Management of International Organizations from the University of Geneva.