Sophie Arts is the program coordinator for security and defense policy (SDP) at The German Marshall Fund of the United States' (GMF) in Washington, DC. In that role, she manages GMF’s security and defense programming and Washington-based convening. She also supports SDP’s research and publication portfolio, and helps coordinate her team’s external communications. Her research focuses on transatlantic security cooperation within and outside of NATO. Originally from Germany, she holds a Master’s degree in American Studies with a concentration in U.S. Foreign Policy and Political Communication from Humboldt University in Berlin, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in English and Modern History from the University of Freiburg. As part of her program, she spent two years studying at the University of Virginia and at Connecticut College. Prior to joining GMF’s Washington office, Arts worked as research assistant at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC, where she helped produce President and CEO Fred Kempe’s Inflection Points, and as a trainee in GMF’s Brussels Office, where she assisted with the organization of GMF’s flagship conference Brussels Forum.  She has a background in political journalism, writing for Spiegel Online International, and preparing news briefs for the European Commission as part of her work for the media-monitoring agency Kantar Media.