Sammy Dolin is GMF's social media specialist.
She works to elevate the organization's presence across digital mediums. Prior to joining GMF, Dolin worked as senior communications coordinator for the McCain Institute at Arizona State University, managing the organization's external communications. She also worked at the National Park Foundation helping to raise awareness of America's 400+ national parks.
Dolin holds a master's degree in political communications from American University's School of Communications.
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Dr. Sophia Besch is GMF's Berlin-based research director and managing director for transatlantic security. Her research and advisory work is focused on European rearmament and defense-industrial policy, US-Europe relations, the EU's role in defense, and German defense policy.
Besch joined GMF from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC, where she was a senior fellow working on European defense and the transatlantic relationship. Before that, she was a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) research fellow at the American-German Institute. She also taught as an adjunct lecturer at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and was a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform in London and Berlin, where she ran the institute's work on EU defense industrial policy, NATO, and the UK-EU defense relationship.
Besch comments frequently on defense and foreign policy in print and broadcast media, and has written for The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Internationale Politik, Politico, Project Syndicate, and War on the Rocks, among others. She has given evidence to the UK House of Commons Defence Select Committee, the Bundestag's EU Committee, the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Security and Defence, and the US Helsinki Commission. She holds a PhD from King's College London and degrees from Sciences Po Paris and the London School of Economics. She speaks fluent French and German.
Sabina Babaieva is a visiting fellow with GMF’s Strategic Democracy Initiatives (SDI) team. She is a senior at Yale University pursuing a bachelor’s degree in ethics, politics, and economics with a concentration in security studies. Her coursework centers on democratic resilience, security, and governance under stress.
Babaieva brings an academic profile closely aligned with SDI’s work on Ukraine and foreign information manipulation. With initial guidance from the Yale Center for Geospatial Solutions, she developed an independent open-source project geocoding Russian propaganda narratives on military positioning in Donbas and auditing them against satellite imagery and Ukrainian and international sources. As a political-military analysis research intern at the Hudson Institute, she analyzed Russian and Chinese state media and Kremlin-adjacent sources to assess China–Russia–DPRK alignment and its implications for US allies in Europe and the Indo-Pacific. She completed an intensive Chinese-language study program with distinction at National Taiwan University in Taipei and coursework in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Oxford University. She has coordinated expert panels on Ukrainian reform, cognitive warfare, and wartime resilience with the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.
Prior to joining GMF, Babaieva was a researcher at the Yale MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies and a research assistant at Yale’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS), where she worked on the Soviet Economic Archives Project. She held leadership positions in the European Youth Parliament of Ukraine and WiTech Ukraine, a women-in-technology organization she co-founded in Kyiv.
Pelham Hardie is a Washington, DC-based senior program coordinator at GMF’s Democracy and Security Network, where he supports research and programming on civil-military relations, military politicization, and democratic resilience in the United States and Europe.
Hardie previously served as a trainee with the Democracy and Security Network and with GMF’s Transatlantic Security program. In the latter role, he researched Russian military strategy and operations using Russian-language primary sources and open-source methods. His work included analyzing the Kremlin's force posture in Syria, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea.
Before joining GMF, Hardie was a research fellow with the US Army Foreign Military Studies Office, where he analyzed Russian and Chinese military diplomacy and security developments in Central Asia using foreign-language and open-source materials.
Hardie holds a master’s degree in European, Russian, and Eurasian studies from Carleton University, and a bachelor’s degree in history from Middlebury College, from which he graduated magna cum laude.
Dr. Sophia Besch is GMF's Berlin-based research director and managing director for transatlantic security. Her research and advisory work is focused on European rearmament and defense-industrial policy, US-Europe relations, the EU's role in defense, and German defense policy.
Besch joined GMF from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC, where she was a senior fellow working on European defense and the transatlantic relationship. Before that, she was a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) research fellow at the American-German Institute. She also taught as an adjunct lecturer at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and was a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform in London and Berlin, where she ran the institute's work on EU defense industrial policy, NATO, and the UK-EU defense relationship.
Besch comments frequently on defense and foreign policy in print and broadcast media, and has written for The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Internationale Politik, Politico, Project Syndicate, and War on the Rocks, among others. She has given evidence to the UK House of Commons Defence Select Committee, the Bundestag's EU Committee, the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Security and Defence, and the US Helsinki Commission. She holds a PhD from King's College London and degrees from Sciences Po Paris and the London School of Economics. She speaks fluent French and German.
Tetiana Kutsevych is a visiting fellow with the Strategic Democracy Initiative at GMF. She coordinates projects and activities within the Ukraine resilience and recovery portfolio, including the Unbreakable Europe initiative, which works to bring Ukraine’s practical wartime experience in civil protection and crisis preparedness to attention of European institutions and national authorities. She engages with participating institutions and partners across Europe, prepares working materials and project outputs, and manages communications among project teams in Kyiv, Brussels, and Washington.
Kutsevych also coordinates activities related to the Unbreakable Kherson project, including the publication of the Ukrainian-language edition and events presenting Ukraine’s experience of resilience and recovery under wartime conditions. Her broader portfolio includes consultation with Ukrainian national and local authorities on civil preparedness, infrastructure protection, and local self-government.
Before joining GMF, Kutsevych served as a project manager at international technology companies Viseven and Wezom, where she oversaw multiple projects and coordinated cross-functional teams. Prior to that, she worked as a marketing and partnerships manager at Termojet and manager for international communications and partnerships at Ecosoft. At the Montessori School in Kyiv, she organized international conferences connecting Ukraine’s Montessori community with partners abroad and represented Ukrainian educational practices internationally.
Kutsevych holds a master’s degree in psychology from Kyiv National Linguistics University and a professional certification in project management from IAMPM.
Anne-Sophie Corbeau is a visiting fellow in GMF's Strategic Foresight program and a global research scholar at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, where she leads research on natural gas and hydrogen. She is also a visiting professor at Sciences Po.
With 25 years’ experience in the energy industry, Corbeau is a widely published author on the geopolitics of gas, and markets in China, India, and other countries in Asia and Africa. She is the author of "LNG Markets in Transition: The Great Reconfiguration" and co-chairs the governing body of Gastech.
Corbeau was previously head of gas analysis at bp and analyzed trends across the gas, nuclear, and hydrogen sectors as part of the company's Economic and Energy Insights team. She was also a research fellow at King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) in Riyadh, where she built the natural gas program, and held roles at the International Energy Agency and at IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates. She began her career as an engineer working on fuel cells and hydrogen at Peugeot and Debis Systemhaus.
Corbeau holds a master's degree in energy engineering from École Centrale Paris and a master's degree in economics from the University of Stuttgart.
Kritika Sharma is a Washington, DC-based multimedia specialist focusing on video production and international affairs storytelling. With over six years of experience in multimedia and strategic communications, she makes global issues easier to understand by producing impactful visual storytelling on topics including geopolitics, diplomacy, governance, and migration.
Prior to joining GMF, Sharma led multimedia at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and Institute of Politics and Public Service. She also worked at the Women’s Congressional Policy Institute, where she transformed its multimedia presence and pioneered creative video formats.
Sharma holds a master's degree in international migration and refugees from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. She speaks French, Spanish, Hindi, and Marathi.
Ioan Istrate is a nonresident senior fellow with GMF. He is part of the research team supporting the GMF Defense Tech Task Force.
Istrate is a strategic advisor specializing in transatlantic cooperation on emerging technology, defense innovation, dual-use ecosystems, and allied capability development. Recently, he served as senior advisor to the executive team of NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA), where he supported the scale-up of the alliance’s dual-use accelerator program. His work involved shaping elements of DIANA’s operating model and linking emerging companies to commercialization, capital, and allied capability-development pathways. He convened the transatlantic investor network, connecting it with deep tech opportunities in 32 allied markets; and advised high-potential companies within the program on capital readiness and go-to-market strategy. He also served on the founding advisory body of the NATO Innovation Fund.
Previously, Istrate advised the Romanian government on emerging technology policy and initiated key national-level capabilities. His background spans government, management consulting (PricewaterhouseCoopers, Kearney), entrepreneurship, and strategic advisory. Earlier in his career, Istrate contributed to global emerging technology ecosystems including at the XPRIZE Foundation, where he won the 2016 XPRIZE Visioneers competition.
Istrate holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a master’s degree from the Bucharest University of Economics.
Zach Beecher is a nonresident senior fellow with GMF's Global Power Shifts team. He is part of the research staff supporting GMF's Defense Tech Task Force.
Beecher is also director of investment strategy on the Ventures and Tech Accelerator team at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he focuses on scaling defense and national security technologies from inception to impact. He brings a rare combination of operational military experience, deep defense-sector networks, and a track record of building venture portfolios at the intersection of technology and national security. Previously, he served as a partner at Scout Ventures, partner and head of growth at America's Frontier Fund, and principal at C5 Accelerate, where he built an early-stage portfolio spanning cyber, AI, and the space economy. A Ranger-qualified paratrooper and veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division, Beecher led combat logistics advisory for Iraqi forces during Operation Inherent Resolve and continues to serve as a reservist with Special Operations Command—firsthand experience that directly informs his commitment to technologies that matter. He holds a bachelor’s degree in national security policy from Princeton University, an MPhil from Cambridge, and a master’s degree from King's College London, where he was a Rotary Scholar. He serves on the boards of Operation Gratitude and the Mental Health Association of New Jersey.