Transatlantic Relations

Tara Varma is the managing director of strategic foresight and director of GMF’s Paris office. An expert on French and European foreign policy with a special interest in the transatlantic relationship and European strategic engagement in the Indo-Pacific, she has worked and lived in Shanghai, London, New Delhi, Paris, and Washington, DC.

Varma joined GMF from the Brookings Institution’s Center of the United States and Europe, where she was a visiting fellow. She was director of the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Paris office from 2019 to 2022.

Varma holds a master’s degree in international relations from Sciences Po Lille and a master’s degree in international politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, where she focused on Asian politics and the foreign policies of China and India.

Dr. Leonard Schütte is a GMF visiting fellow and an International Security Program fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. His work at the intersection of academia and policy focuses on European defense, transatlantic relations, and foreign policy thinking within the MAGA movement.

Dr. Schütte was previously a senior researcher at the Munich Security Conference, a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) fellow at the American-German Institute, a visiting researcher at the University of Oxford, and an O’Donnell fellow at the Centre for European Reform in London.

Dr. Schütte has co-edited recent Munich Security Reports and co-authored the book “The Survival of International Organisations”. He has published policy briefs and academic articles in journals such as International Affairs and the Journal of European Public Policy. He regularly provides commentaries for newspapers and briefings for decision-makers.

Dr. Schütte holds a PhD from Maastricht University and master’s degrees from Cambridge University and the University of St Andrews.