English

Markus Ziener is a professor of journalism and head of the master's degree program at Media University Berlin. He teaches political theory and economics, mass media, journalistic writing, and press history. He also writes regularly for The Straits Times and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and contributes to the German public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk/Deutschlandradio.

From 2006 to 2012, Ziener served as Washington bureau chief of Handelsblatt, Germany’s leading business daily. Prior to that, he worked as a field reporter, covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was also Handelsblatt’s correspondent in Moscow (1994–1999) and in Eastern Europe (1990–1994). He served as foreign editor at the Financial Times Deutschland from 1999 to 2001.

Ziener studied in Erlangen-Nuremberg and earned a PhD in political science from Humboldt University of Berlin, focusing on financial crises and reforms in Poland. He also held a research fellowship at Duke University. In 2021–22, he was the Helmut Schmidt Fellow at GMF. He has been a Berlin-based visiting senior fellow at GMF since 2022, analyzing transatlantic relations, Russia, and Ukraine.

Jonas Parello-Plesner is a visiting fellow in GMF's Indo-Pacific program. His research focuses on Asia and China and relations with EU and the United States. Parello-Plesner has also worked at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) as a Senior Policy Fellow with a focus on European-Chinese relations.

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.

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.