Security + Geopolitics

Özgür Ünlühisarcıklı is the managing director of GMF South and Wider Europe and the regional director for Türkiye. Prior to joining GMF, he was the manager of the Resource Development Department of the Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey. Previously, Ünlühisarcıklı served as director of the ARI Movement, a Turkish NGO promoting participatory democracy, and as a consultant at AB Consulting and Investment Services.

Ünlühisarcıklı is an expert on transatlantic relations and Turkish foreign policy, domestic politics, democratization, and civil society. He is quoted frequently in international media including The New York Times, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Deutsche Welle, and the BBC.

After graduating from the Robert College (Istanbul), Ünlühisarcıklı received his bachelor's degree in business administration from Marmara University and his master's degree from Koç University. He speaks fluent English in addition to his native Turkish.

William McIlhenny is a visiting senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He was formerly at the White House as a director at the National Security Council, and at the US Department of State as a senior policy advisor. He also served as a member of the secretary of state's policy planning staff. 

Dr. Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer is GMF’s president. In her previous capacity as senior vice president for geostrategy, she led GMF’s geostrategy policy and risk advisory initiatives across Europe, the United States, and the Indo-Pacific. Her areas of expertise encompass European affairs, transatlantic and international relations, and corporate diplomacy.

With more than 15 years’ experience in senior advisory and executive roles, Dr. de Hoop Scheffer advises governments, multinational corporations, and financial institutions on the political, geopolitical, and macroeconomic trends that shape their operations and strategies. She helps them develop early-warning systems and forward-looking decision-making processes.

Dr. de Hoop Scheffer serves as an independent board director on the supervisory board of Meridiam and the French Treasury Strategic Committee, among other bodies. She is also chair of the advisory board of the French Chief of Defense Staff and a member of the board of the France-Nederland Cultuurfonds, the advisory board of the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique, and the editorial board of The Washington Quarterly. She is a member of the Trilateral Commission.

Prior to joining GMF in 2012 as its Paris office director and as a senior fellow, Dr. de Hoop Scheffer held key advisory positions in the French government, academia, and international organizations, including with the French foreign ministry’s policy planning staff (2009-2011), NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe (2010-2013), the French Ministry of Defense (2006-2009), and UN peacekeeping operations (2006). She also served as an associate professor at Sciences Po Paris and as a research fellow at the Institut Français des Relations Internationales.

A dual French-Dutch citizen, Dr. de Hoop Scheffer holds a PhD in political science from Sciences Po Paris and is the author of “Hamlet en Irak”. She is a frequent public speaker and writer. 

Emiliano Alessandri is a visiting senior fellow at GMF. He is also a senior adviser with the Agency for Peace Building and an associate fellow with the Middle East Institute. His expertise is in the field of international security and multilateral cooperation with a particular focus on transatlantic relations, European affairs, and the Mediterranean/Middle East North Africa.

Alessandri was a resident senior transatlantic fellow with GMF between 2010 and 2013, working primarily on Mediterranean affairs and Türkiye. He subsequently served three successive secretary generals of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe as a senior officer between 2013 and 2023. He also held positions with the International Center for Migration Policy Development, the Brookings Institution, and the Institute of International Affairs of Rome, and taught at the College of Europe and Central European University.

Alessandri holds a PhD in international history from the University of Cambridge and a master’s degree in international economics and US foreign policy from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). 

Bruce Stokes is a visiting senior fellow at GMF. He is the coauthor of GMF’s two recent studies on rebuilding Ukraine and senior editor of the 2022 Transatlantic Trends survey. From 2019 to 2021, he was the executive director of GMF’s Transatlantic Task Force, which produced "Together or Alone? Choices and Strategies for Transatlantic Relations for 2021 and Beyond". He was also a GMF senior fellow from 2010 to 2012, wrote the 2009 Transatlantic Trends survey, and authored two GMF task force reports, "The Case for Renewing Transatlantic Capitalism", and "A New Era for Transatlantic Trade Leadership".

Stokes was a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations between 2017 and 2020, and remains a member. He is also an associate fellow at Chatham House. From 2012 to 2019 he was the director of Pew Research Center's Global Economic Attitudes and coauthored numerous public opinion surveys. Prior to this, he was for 23 years the international economics correspondent for the National Journal, a Washington, DC-based public policy magazine.

Stokes was a Japan Society Fellow in 1987 and 1989, living in and reporting from Japan. He was a member of President Clinton's Commission on United States-Pacific Trade and Investment Policy in 1997 and wrote its final report, "Building American Prosperity in the 21st Century". He is coauthor of "America Against the World: How We Are Different and Why We Are Disliked" and author of "Helping Ourselves: Local Solutions to Global Problems". He edited "Partners or Competitors", "Trade Strategies for a New Era", and "Open For Business: Creating a Transatlantic Marketplace".

Stokes was honored in 2006 by the Coalition of Service Industries for his reporting on services issues. In 2004, he was chosen by International Economy magazine as one of the most influential China watchers in the US press. In 1995, he was picked by Washingtonian Magazine as one of the "Best on Business" reporters in Washington, and, in 1989, he won the coveted John Hancock award for excellence in business and economics reporting for his series on the impact of the rising yen on the Japanese economy.

Stokes is a graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. He attended Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.