Baltics

Parker L. Nash is GMF’s government relations specialist. He spearheads the organization’s work with US policymakers outside Washington, DC, engaging with officials nationwide through transatlantic study tours, public diplomacy initiatives, and policy work.

Nash previously served as a senior program coordinator for GMF North, helping to manage programs focused on geostrategic issues facing Northern Europe, the Baltic States, and the Arctic, including the Across America initiative. He also contributed to the workstream’s research portfolio. His policy and research interests include transatlantic defense cooperation, NATO’s role in the Nordic-Baltic region, and US-German relations.

Nash holds a master’s degree in public administration from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, a master’s degree in international affairs from the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Findlay.

Sophie Arts is a fellow with GMF’s Geostrategy North team, where she leads the workstream’s research on Arctic security and geopolitics. As part of her portfolio, she covers Nordic security, North American homeland defense, and regional cooperation with allies and partners.

In 2017, Arts joined GMF's Washington, DC-based security and defense policy team, focusing on transatlantic security within and outside NATO. Her prior research covered the alliance’s partnerships and flexible formats, the impact of emerging technologies on NATO defense and deterrence, the dynamics of escalation within the cyber domain, and strategic stability in a multipolar world. 

Arts previously worked as a research assistant at the Atlantic Council and as a trainee in GMF’s Brussels office. She has a background in political journalism, writing for Spiegel Online International and Kantar Media. Originally from Germany, she holds a master’s degree from Humboldt University in Berlin and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Freiburg. She spent two years studying in the United States, at Connecticut College and at the University of Virginia, where she also worked as a research assistant in the media studies department and in the university’s Center for Politics, supporting Larry J. Sabato's work on "The Kennedy Half-Century".  

Kristine Berzina is the Washington, DC-based managing director of GMF Geostrategy North. She is responsible for leading programming on US, Nordic, Baltic, and Arctic security and defense issues, and provides analysis on NATO and US and European foreign policy.

Berzina also leads GMF’s Across America initiative, which takes European officials into the US heartland to build regional connections on security issues. She is a frequent commentator in international media, including The New York Times, the BBC, CNN, NPR, France 24, Deutsche Welle, and The New Yorker. She is a co-host of Drošinātājs (The Fuse), a Ukraine-focused podcast and Latvian radio program.

Berzina previously worked on countering autocratic influence as head of GMF’s Alliance for Securing Democracy’s geopolitics team and, while based in Brussels and Berlin for the organization, on transatlantic security and energy issues. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and history from Yale University and a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Cambridge.