Central and Eastern Europe

Joerg Forbrig is the managing director of the European Resilience program, GMF’s long-term effort to empower democratic societies amid rising authoritarianism, increasing hybrid threats, and growing geopolitical tension. Based in GMF’s Berlin office, he oversees several targeted initiatives and specialized teams, including Engaging Central Europe; the Fund for Belarus Democracy; Ukraine: Relief, Resilience, Recovery; the ReThink.CEE Fellowship; and the Bulwark project on societal and democratic resilience across Europe’s East. He also works closely with GMF’s Balkan Trust for Democracy and Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation.

Forbrig’s analytical and policy work focuses on the easternmost members of the EU and NATO, the EU’s eastern and southeastern neighborhoods, and Russia. He has published widely on democratic processes, reform and resilience, civil society and citizen participation, and Central and Eastern European affairs. Forbrig studied political science, sociology, and Eastern European affairs at universities in Germany, Poland, and Hungary. He holds a PhD in social and political sciences from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and a Master’s degree in political science from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.

Alina Inayeh is currently a non-resident fellow. She joined GMF in 2007 as the director of the Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation, a project dedicated to strengthening cooperation and fostering development in the Black Sea region. She is an active practitioner in the field of international development and democratization, having run the Freedom House office in Ukraine in 2004 and the NDI office in Russia in 2000-2003, with a focus on civic education and political processes. She has trained NGOs throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union on issues related to NGO development and democratization. She was a leading civic activist in the 1990s in Romania and an active promoter of the NGO sector in the country.

Nicolas Bouchet is a senior visiting fellow with GMF’s European Resilience program, focusing on efforts to support democracy and civil society, including most recently democratic exiles. He also works closely with GMFs’ ReThink.CEE Fellows. He conducts research on EU and US democracy promotion, with a particular focus on Russia and Eurasia (especially the countries of the EU’s Eastern Partnership). His research interests also include US foreign policy, democratization, and civil society. He has authored numerous policy papers, reports, and articles on these topics.

Daniel Hegedüs is a senior visiting fellow with GMF and deputy director of the Institute for European Politics (IEP) in Berlin.

His research focuses on democratic and rule-of-law backsliding within the EU, the intersection of autocratization and foreign policy, and the European and foreign policies of the Visegrad countries.

Hegedüs previously served as GMF’s regional director for Central Europe and held variousresearch and lecturing positions at institutions including the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Freedom House, the Institute for Eastern European Studies at the Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, and Eötvös Loránd University.

Hegedüs studied political science, history, and European law, is the author of more than 80 academic and policy papers, and is a frequent contributor to international media.