French

Gunnar Wiegand is a visiting distinguished fellow in the Indo-Pacific program since November 2023. From 2016 to 2023, Wiegand served as the managing director for Asia and the Pacific at the European External Action Service (EEAS). In this function, Wiegand was a key contributor to the EU’s policy orientations on EU relations with China and India, the Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, Europe Asia Connectivity Policy (the precursor for the Global Gateway initiative), and enhanced security engagement with Indo-Pacific partners. He was also the EU's senior official for the Asia Europe meetings (ASEM) and EU-ASEAN relations. Among other tasks, he served as the EU's chief negotiator for the new EU-Japan Strategic Partnership Agreement. Prior to that, Wiegand served as EEAS director for Russia, Eastern Partnership, Central Asia, OSCE and Northern Dimension (2011–2015).

Wiegand held various senior positions at the European Commission, including director for Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus, and Central Asia at DG RELEX (2008–2011), head of unit for Relations with Russia and the Northern Dimension at DG RELEX (2006–2008), head of unit for Relations with the United States and Canada (2003–2006), and spokesman for Lord Chris Patten, EU Commissioner for External Relations (1999–2002).

Wiegand holds a law degree from the University of Hamburg and a master’s degree in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. He is a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, and the Paris School of International Affairs in Paris, France.

Alix Frangeul-Alves is a program coordinator on GMF’s Risk and Strategy team. Based in Paris, she focuses on US domestic politics and foreign policy, and the geopolitics of energy.

Frangeul-Alves holds a master’s degree from the French Institute of Geopolitics, where she specialized in security and defense, international relations, and diplomacy. She wrote master's theses on the geopolitical stakes of the energy transition in the United Kingdom and on the role of American natural gas in the transatlantic community’s geopolitical strategy. She speaks English, French, Italian, and Portuguese.

Ambassador Brent Hardt is a resident senior fellow at GMF who brings 35 years of experience leading at all levels of government. He has guided five embassies as ambassador, chargé d’affaires, and deputy chief of mission, and served as foreign policy advisor to US Central Command and US Special Operations Command, working closely with allies to meet vital security challenges. As professor and senior advisor at the US Naval War College, he taught national security strategy and policy and developed a seminar on the evolution of modern Europe.

Hardt joined the US Foreign Service in 1988, serving in Berlin, the Hague, Rome, Paris, Canada, and the Caribbean. He was an exchange diplomat with the Netherlands Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense in 1993. In Washington, he served as Team Leader for NATO Policy in the State Department’s Office of European Political and Security Affairs, where he was responsible for NATO enlargement, NATO-Ukraine, and European Security and Defense policy issues.

Over the course of his career, Hardt has received multiple Senior Performance Awards, the Director General's Award for Reporting, five Superior Honor Awards, and three Meritorious Honor Awards. He also received the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Meritorious Civilian Service Award and the US Special Operations Command Distinguished Civilian Service Award. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University and a master’s in law and diplomacy and a PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Dimitar Keranov is a program coordinator with GMF’s Engaging Central Europe program in Berlin. His areas of expertise are democratization and Bulgarian politics. Prior to joining GMF, Keranov worked at the Institut für Europäische Politik in Berlin and in the private sector.

Keranov holds a master’s degree in governance from the University of Hagen and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Free University of Berlin. In addition to his native Bulgarian, he speaks English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Croatian, Serbian, Russian, Czech, and Afrikaans.