Defense Cooperation

Dr. Minxin Pei joined GMF as a visiting senior fellow for Indo-Pacific in 2012. As part of the Indo-Pacific team, Pei advances GMF’s work on the implications of China’s rise for the West and supports the Stockholm China Forum.

In addition to his work with GMF, Pei is the Tom and Margot Pritzker Professor of Government and director of the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies at Claremont McKenna College. He is the author of From Reform to Revolution: The Demise of Communism in China and the Soviet Union (Harvard University Press, 1994) and China’s Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy (Harvard University Press, 2006). His research has focused on democratization, China’s political development, the Chinese Communist Party, U.S.–China relations, and Chinese foreign policy. Pei is a columnist for L’Espresso and the Indian Express, and a regular contributor to The Diplomat. He has written for the Financial Times, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek International, and the International Herald Tribune. He received his PhD in political science from Harvard University.

Michał Baranowski is a managing director of GMF East. He was previously a senior fellow and the director of GMF's Warsaw office.

Baranowski provides overall strategic direction and leadership for the organization’s work in Poland, the Baltic states, and the V4 countries. He writes and speaks extensively on NATO, transatlantic relations, and US foreign policy, and is frequently quoted in outlets such as Associated Press, Financial Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Die Welt, Rzeczpospolita, Reuters, Axios, Le Soir, The Washington Post, and Foreign Affairs. He publishes in Polish, American, and European media and policy journals.

Baranowski is a member of the Polish-German reflection group established by presidents of Poland and Germany. He holds a master's degree in European public affairs from Maastricht University, and has studied at Mercer University in the United States and at the University of Oxford.

Ian Lesser is a distinguished fellow and adviser to GMF’s president. He heads the organization’s Brussels office and leads GMF South, a program encompassing research and analysis of developments in Southern Europe, Türkiye, the Mediterranean, and North-South relations around the Atlantic. He served as GMF’s acting president from 2020 to 2021. His expertise includes US foreign and security policy, transatlantic relations, and European and Middle Eastern affairs. He holds the chair in transatlantic trade and economy at the College of Europe in Bruges. 

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

A frequent commentator for international media, Lesser has written extensively on foreign and security policy issues. He holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford and studied at the University of Pennsylvania, the London School of Economics, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the Pacific Council on International Policy. He serves on the advisory boards of the NATO Defense College Foundation, the Antwerp-American Foundation, Atlantic Dialogues, and the Delphi Economic Forum, and has been a senior fellow of the Onassis Foundation and the Luso-American Development Foundation.

Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer is GMF’s senior vice president for geostrategy and a member of the organization’s executive team. She leads GMF’s geostrategy policy and risk advisory work across Europe, the United States, and the Indo-Pacific. Her areas of expertise encompass European affairs, transatlantic and international relations, and corporate diplomacy.

With more than 15 years’ experience in senior advisory and executive roles, de Hoop Scheffer advises governments, multinational corporations, and financial institutions on the political, geopolitical, and macroeconomic trends that shape their operations and strategies. She helps them develop early-warning systems and forward-looking decision-making processes.

de Hoop Scheffer serves as an independent board director for several organizations, including the Supervisory Board of Meridiam and the French Treasury Strategic Committee, and as chair of the advisory board of the French Chief of Defense Staff. She is also a member of the board of the France-Nederland Cultuurfonds, the advisory board of the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique (FRS), and the editorial board of The Washington Quarterly.

Prior to joining GMF in 2012 as its Paris office director and as a senior fellow, de Hoop Scheffer held key advisory positions in the French government, academia, and international organizations, including with the French foreign ministry’s policy planning staff (2009-2011), NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe (2010-2013), the French Ministry of Defense (2006-2009), and UN peacekeeping operations (2006). She also served as an associate professor at Sciences Po Paris and as a research fellow at the Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI).

A dual French-Dutch citizen, de Hoop Scheffer holds a PhD in political science from Sciences Po Paris and is the author of “Hamlet en Irak” (CNRS Éditions, 2007). She is a frequent public speaker and writer.

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.

Martin Quencez is managing director of geopolitical risk and strategy. Over the past ten years, he has held several positions at GMF, including as deputy director of the Paris office and research fellow in the Security and Defense program. His work includes research on transatlantic security and defense cooperation, and US and French foreign policy, on which he regularly writes for international media. He is a co-author of GMF’s annual flagship Transatlantic Trends report. 

Quencez is also an associate researcher for the European Council on Foreign Relations, working in France for its European Powers program. He has taught transatlantic relations at the Euro-American campus of Sciences Po and, prior to joining GMF, worked for the Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, focusing on French and Indian strategic thinking. 

Quencez studied international relations at the Uppsala University and is a graduate of Sciences Po. He is completing a PhD in contemporary history at Sorbonne Nouvelle University. 

Bart M.J. Szewczyk (SHEF-chick) is a visiting senior fellow with GMF in Brussels focusing on international order, transatlantic relations, NATO, the European Union, Ukraine, Russia, and the United Nations. He also advises on European and global public policy at Covington & Burling LLP and teaches grand strategy at Sciences Po in Paris.