Security + Geopolitics

Dr. Martin Quencez is a senior fellow and special adviser to the president. Over the past ten years, he has held several positions at GMF, including as managing director for GMF Strategic Foresight and director of the Paris office. He co-leads the Transatlantic Security Task Force and was an author of GMF’s annual flagship Transatlantic Trends report.

Dr. Quencez's work includes research on transatlantic security and defense cooperation, and US and French foreign policy, on which he regularly writes for international media. He is regularly invited by European ministries of defense to provide briefings and advisory support,  and frequently delivers presentations on geopolitics and transatlantic security to senior private-sector representatives.

Dr. Quencez was previously an associate researcher for the European Council on Foreign Relations, working in France for its European Powers program. He has taught transatlantic relations at the Euro-American campus of Sciences Po and worked for the Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, focusing on French and Indian strategic thinking. 

Dr. Quencez studied international relations at Uppsala University and is a graduate of Sciences Po. He has a PhD in history from Sorbonne Nouvelle University. 

Kristina Kausch is deputy managing director of GMF’s South and Wider Europe program, dividing her time between Madrid and Brussels. An established voice on European foreign affairs and Europe’s relations with its neighborhood, she conducts research on a broad interdisciplinary portfolio that includes international security, connectivity, the geopolitics of technology, and global power shifts.

Prior to joining GMF, Kausch held positions with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; FRIDE, a Spanish think tank; the Bertelsmann Stiftung; and GIZ, the German development cooperation agency. She has contributed to a wide range of media outlets including The New York Times, the Financial Times, The Guardian, Politico, El País, RTVE, Defense One, Deutsche Welle, ARD, Der Tagesspiegel, and Süddeutsche Zeitung. 

Dr. Kadri Tastan is a nonresident senior fellow in GMF’s Brussels office. His research focuses on Türkiye, the EU, transatlantic relations, energy, climate, and trade. Prior to joining GMF, he was an expert on European affairs and environmental issues at the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB).

Tastan has also been an IPC Mercator fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and an adjunct professor at TOBB University of Economics and Technology. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris and a master’s degree in international relations from Paris-Panthéon-Assas University.

Oliver Gnad is the co-founder and managing director of the Bureau für Zeitgeschehen (Bureau of Current Affairs), a Berlin-based think-and-do-tank specialized in strategic foresight and scenario planning. He is a member of the pan-European Think Tank “New Pact for Europe,” a fellow of the Dahrendorf Forum and a certified senior instructor of Globalytica Ltd., a Washington-based thought leader in building analytic cultures.