Dr. Sophia Besch to Join GMF as Research Director and Managing Director for Transatlantic Security

The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) is delighted to announce that Dr. Sophia Besch will join the organization as research director and managing director for transatlantic security on September 15. A leading expert in transatlantic and European security, defense, and policy, she will oversee and shape GMF's research agenda and lead the organization's work on transatlantic and European defense industrial issues from its Berlin office. 

“We are thrilled to have Sophia join GMF and strengthen our transatlantic security team,” said Dr. Claudia Major, GMF senior vice president for transatlantic security. “At a defining moment for the transatlantic relationship, her deep expertise, sharp analysis, and extensive cross-Atlantic experience will be invaluable. Sophia's arrival reaffirms GMF's role as the go-to institution for transatlantic security and defense”.

Besch joins GMF from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington D.C., where she was a senior fellow in the Europe program. She has also served as an adjunct lecturer at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and as a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform (CER) in London and Berlin. She has worked with the Atlantic Council's Europe Centre, and was the DAAD research fellow at the American-German Institute. She is a member of the Atlantik Brücke Young Leaders program. 

Besch holds a PhD in European studies from King’s College London, and degrees in international relations and international security from Sciences Po Paris and the London School of Economics. 

"Sophia joins GMF with an exceptional record of policy-relevant research and a rare ability to bridge the policy, business, industry, and academic communities across the Atlantic," said Dr. Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer, GMF president. "Her leadership will sharpen our research and strengthen GMF's role as the leading institution shaping the future of transatlantic relations, NATO, and European security.”