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The role of think tanks

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Erwin-Schrödinger-Saal
Plenary /
German and English language
Analyst, RAND Corporation; Director, Initiative for Middle Eastern Youth (IMEY), Arlington
Director, Middle East Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C.
Founding Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Sabanci University, Istanbul; Senior Fellow, Transatlantic Academy, Washington, D.C.
Executive Director, Balkan Trust for Democracy, The German Marshall Fund of the United States, Belgrade
Austrian Federal Minister for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, Vienna Chair

Ph.D. Cheryl BENARD

Analyst, RAND Corporation; Director, Initiative for Middle Eastern Youth (IMEY), Arlington

 B.A. from the American University of Beirut
 Ph.D. from the University of Vienna
 Novelist and Feminist author on topics including current events, women in nation-building, youth radicalization in the European Diaspora, and secularization pertaining to Islam

Haleh ESFANDIARI

Director, Middle East Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C.

1968-1970 Lecturer in Persian language, Oxford University, England
1973-1976 Deputy Secretary General, Women's Organization of Iran
1977-1979 Director, Bagh e Ferdows Cultural Center, Tehran, Iran
1980-1994 Lecturer in Persian language and literature, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University
since 1998 Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Ph.D. Ahmet EVIN

Founding Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Sabanci University, Istanbul; Senior Fellow, Transatlantic Academy, Washington, D.C.

1966 B.A. Columbia University
1971-1972 Lecturer, New York University
1972-1973 Taught at Harvard University
1973 Ph.D. Columbia University
1973-1974 Fellow, Harvard University
1974-1976 Taught at Hacettepe University, Ankara
1977-1986 Taught at the University of Pennsylvania
1983-1986 Director, Middle East Center, University of Pennsylvania
1985-1986 Professor, University of Hamburg
1986-1992 Director of Education, Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Paris and Geneva
1992-1993 Head, Ankara Corporate Affairs Office, Philip Morris International
1994-1995 Visiting Professor, University of Hamburg
1994 Initiated a policy dialogue on the future European architecture, Turkey s place in that architecture, EU enlargement, and the effects of the customs union agreement with Turkey. Based on that initiative he established, in cooperation with a broad network of European research institutes and universities, Turkey s EU Membership Observatory now based at the Istanbul Policy Center at Sabanci University
1995-1997 Professor of Political Science, Bilkent, Ankara (also headed 1995-96 the Department of Political Science and Public Administration)
since 2007 Senior Faculty, Arts and Social Sciences, Sabanci University
1997-2001 Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Sabanci University, Istanbul
2001 Founding and Executive Board Member of the Istanbul Policy Center
2004 Visiting Professor, Northwestern University
2004-2005 Alexander Onassis senior fellow and visiting scholar at ELIAMEP: the Hellenic Foundation for European Foreign Policy, Athens
since 2009 Senior Fellow, Transatlantic Academy, Washington. D.C.

Ivan VEJVODA

Executive Director, Balkan Trust for Democracy, The German Marshall Fund of the United States, Belgrade

 Graduated from Institut d etudes politiques, Paris
 Post graduate studies at the Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade University
1984-1993 Political Scientist, Institute for European Studies, Belgrade
1989 Co-founder of the Democratic Forum in Belgrade
1992 Co-founder of the Belgrade Circle of independent intellectuals
1993-1996 Lecturer, University of Sussex, Sussex European Institute
1996-1997 Lecturer, Macalester College, Minnesota
1997-1998 Lecturer, Smith College, Massachusetts
1998-2002 Executive Director, Soros Foundation, Belgrade
2002-2003 Senior Foreign Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister of Serbia Zoran Djindjic
since 2003 Executive Director, Balkan Trust for Democracy (a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States)

Dr. Karin KNEISSL

Austrian Federal Minister for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, Vienna

 On 18 December 2017, Dr Karin Kneissl was appointed Federal Minister for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Austria. Karin Kneissl was born in 1965 in Vienna. She studied law and Arab studies at the University of Vienna. She also studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Amman, the University of Urbino and was a Fulbright scholar at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Karin Kneissl is also a graduate of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) in Paris. From 1990 to 1998 Karin Kneissl held a number of posts in the Austrian diplomatic service, including in the cabinet of then foreign minister Dr Alois Mock, in the Office of International Law and at the Austrian embassies in Paris and Madrid. Since 1998 Karin Kneissl has worked as an independent lecturer in the areas of international law, Middle Eastern history and the energy market at various universities, including the University of Vienna; the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna; the European Business School in the Rheingau, Germany; the International Centre for Human Sciences in Byblos, Lebanon; Saint-Joseph University in Beirut; as well as at the Austrian Armed Forces National Defence Academy, Vienna and Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt, Lower Austria. Karin Kneissl has also worked since 1998 as an independent commentator and correspondent for numerous German and English-speaking print media, as well as for the Austrian state broadcaster ORF. She has authored a large number of books and publications. Karin Kneissl is co-founder and vice president of Whistleblowing Austria as well as vice president of the Society for Politico-Strategic Studies, STRATEG. She has worked in local politics in her home community of Seibersdorf and plays an active role in numerous non-profit organisations in Austria and Lebanon. Karin Kneissl speaks various foreign languages: Arabic, English, French, Hebrew (basic), Italian, Hungarian (basic) and Spanish.

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