Sudha David-Wilp is the regional director of the Berlin office and a senior fellow. She joined GMF’s Berlin office in September 2011 and now oversees GMF’s outreach to the Bundestag while serving as an expert on relations between Germany and the United States.
Foreign Policy
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.
Dr. Aaron Friedberg joined GMF as a visiting senior fellow for Indo-Pacific in 2011. He is a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University with expertise in the international relations of Asia, as well as U.S. foreign and defense policy.
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.
Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer is GMF’s acting president, and 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.
Karen Donfried was formerly President at GMF.
Steven Keil was formerly Senior Fellow at GMF.
Rachel Tausendfreund is a senior fellow with GMF’s geostrategy team. From 2015 to 2022 she was GMF’s editorial director, overseeing the organization’s research output and publication planning. She co-created GMF’s Out of Order podcast and is the co-host of Transatlantic Takeaways, a podcast produced in cooperation with Common Ground Berlin.
Tausendfreund researches and writes on US and German domestic and foreign policy, and transatlantic relations and alternative (post-colonial and feminist) approaches to foreign policy. She is a regular commentator in German and US media, including in outlets such as NBC news, Der Spiegel, and Deutsche Welle.
Ulrich Speck was formerly Visiting Senior Fellow at GMF.
Jonas Parello-Plesner is a visiting fellow in GMF's Indo-Pacific program. His research focuses on Asia and China and relations with EU and the United States. Parello-Plesner has also worked at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) as a Senior Policy Fellow with a focus on European-Chinese relations.