Mediterranean

William McIlhenny is a visiting senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He was formerly at the White House as a director at the National Security Council, and at the US Department of State as a senior policy advisor. He also served as a member of the secretary of state's policy planning staff. 

Ian Lesser is a distinguished fellow and adviser to the president. He also serves as executive director of the Brussels office and leads the organization’s work on transatlantic relations involving the Mediterranean and Turkey. His expertise includes US foreign policy and European and Middle Eastern security affairs. 

Prior to joining GMF, Lesser was a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, vice president and director of studies at the Pacific Council on International Policy, and, for more than a decade, a senior analyst and research manager specializing in strategic studies at the RAND Corporation. From 1994-1995, he was a member of the US Secretary of State’s policy planning staff, responsible for Turkey, Southern Europe, North Africa, and the multilateral track of the Middle East peace process. 

Dario Cristiani is a resident senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, based in Washington, D.C., working on Italian foreign policy, the Mediterranean, and global politics. A native of Naples, Italy, he has more than fifteen years of experience as a private political risk consultant, working on Mediterranean and emerging markets. He received his Ph.D. in Middle East and Mediterranean studies from King’s College London in 2015, and he got a BA and MA (with distinctions) from the University of Naples L’Orientale, where he also started his academic career as a teaching and e-learning assistant in political science and comparative politics. He has been the director of executive training in global risk analysis and crisis management and an adjunct professor in international affairs and conflict studies at Vesalius College in Brussels. He continues teaching as a guest lecturer in several institutions in Europe and the Maghreb (Koninklijke Militaire School, Istituto Alti Studi Difesa, Sit Tunis). He has lived in Tunisia, Turkey, Belgium, and the United Kingdom.

Kristina Kausch is deputy managing director and senior fellow, GMF South. She is also the German Marshall Fund’s resident representative in Madrid, Spain. Her research focuses on Europe’s relations with its neighborhood and broader geopolitical trends in the Middle East.

Kadri Tastan is a nonresident senior fellow in GMF’s Brussels office. His research focuses on Türkiye, the EU, transatlantic relations, energy, climate, and trade. Prior to joining GMF, he was an expert on European affairs and environmental issues at the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB).

Tastan has also been an IPC Mercator fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and an adjunct professor at TOBB University of Economics and Technology. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris and a master’s degree in international relations from Paris-Panthéon-Assas University.

Dr. Len Ishmael is the former ambassador of the Eastern Caribbean States to Belgium and to the European Union, and past president of the African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Committee of Ambassadors in Brussels. She is a former director for the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, director general for the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, alternate governor for the World Bank, and director for the Foundation - Leadership for Environment and Development of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York.