Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Charles, M.A.
Thomas Charles is a native of the United Kingdom. His professional background spans across international affairs and journalism, previously serving as an advisor in the British Parliament for the House of Commons. Mr. Charles has worked with several think-tanks in the United Kingdom including the Tactics Institute for Security & Counterterrorism and has worked extensively with the European Parliament. He is a highly sought-after thought leader, and published author with a passion for strengthening trans-Atlantic relations. Mr. Charles earned his B.A. in Politics and Economic & Social History with honors from the University of Leicester and his M.A. in international politics from the University of Sheffield.
Chief Communications Officer, James Grandone, B.A.
James Grandone is the founder of Grandone Media Strategies. James Grandone has been involved in strategic marketing and public relations on a national and international level for more than 30 years. He is past president of the St. Louis chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators and has served on numerous boards, including the Journalism Foundation of Metropolitan St. Louis. Mr. Grandone is an Associate Member of Chicago Bar Association and Associate Member of the American Bar Association. He is a proud volunteer with the American Red Cross Disaster Services. Mr. Grandone holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Springfield and is a former Fellow with the Coro Leadership Center in Public Affairs.
Executive Vice President, Bassima Alghussein, M.A.
Ms. Bassima Alghussein is the founder of Alghussein Global Strategies, an international government affairs and communications consulting firm based in Washington D.C. She frequently appears on international news outlets to discuss foreign and domestic policy issues including reaching audiences in over forty countries worldwide. She has published or been quoted in: Foreign Affairs, Al Jazeera English, The American Conservative and The National Interests. She is a highly sought-after thought leader and has spoken on panels around the world. Ms. Alghussein previously served as a White House appointed Legislative Affairs Advisor to the U.S. Dept. of Energy and is a graduate of the White House Management Leadership Training Program. Prior to that, she led Congressional relations for the Center for Strategic and International Studies and began her career in the U.S. House of Representatives working for a member of the Armed Services Committee. Ms. Alghussein is a cum laude graduate of Mount Holyoke College and studied for her Masters at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. She previously studied and worked at Yale University for the International Security Studies Program.
Alghussein Global Strategies, an international government affairs and communications consulting firm based in Washington D.C. She frequently appears on international news outlets to discuss foreign and domestic policy issues including reaching audiences in over forty countries worldwide. She has published or been quoted in: Foreign Affairs, Al Jazeera English, The American Conservative and The National Interests. She is a highly sought-after thought leader and has spoken on panels around the world. Ms. Alghussein previously served as a White House appointed Legislative Affairs Advisor to the U.S. Dept. of Energy and is a graduate of the White House Management Leadership Training Program. Prior to that, she led Congressional relations for the Center for Strategic and International Studies and began her career in the U.S. House of Representatives working for a member of the Armed Services Committee. Ms. Alghussein is a cum laude graduate of Mount Holyoke College and studied for her Masters at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. She previously studied and worked at Yale University for the International Security Studies Program.
Vice President of Research, George Bogden
Dr. George Bogden is a JD candidate and Dean’s Award Scholar at New York University’s School of Law. Previously, he served as the first Associate Director of the Center for the Future of Liberal Society at the Hudson Institute. Dr. Bogden’s commentary has appeared in the German Marshall Fund’s Paper Series, The American Interest, Justia, Presidential Studies Quarterly, and the Marine Corps University Press. He has held professional research positions at the Middle East Institute and the Public International Law & Policy Group, where he was a Policy Fellow. Dr. Bogden is a New Leader at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, and is a member of Chatham House, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the Japan Society. He has pursued his longstanding professional commitment to Transatlantic affairs through the Manfred Wörner Seminar program and was one of the American Council on Germany’s 2018 Young Leaders.
Dr. Bogden received M.Phil. and D.Phil. degrees in international relations from the University of Oxford, where he was a Clarendon Scholar. During the last year of his doctoral studies, he served as a Fulbright Public Policy Fellow in Kosovo. Before beginning his graduate studies, he received a B.A. in political science from Yale. As an undergraduate, he won the James Gordon Bennet Prize for the best senior essay in international relations, the Harvey Applebaum Award, and the Edwin H. Sherman Family Prize for scholarship on force and diplomacy, serving as Yale’s Fox International Fellow in Istanbul the year following his graduation.
Senior Advisor, Emily Leslie, M.A.
Bio is forthcoming.
Research Director, John Miller, M.A.
John Miller has an extensive background working in Asia, Eastern Europe, and North Africa specializing in program design and implementation, capacity development and evaluation metrics. He has developed and implemented projects for USAID, National Endowment for Democracy (NED), National Democratic Institute (NDI), International Republican Institute (IRI), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe – Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE-ODIHR), Department for International Development United Kingdom (DFID), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Australian Aid, the Carter Center, and the Asia Pacific Democracy Partnership (APDP).
Mr. Miller received a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs (focusing on International Affairs and Management) and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Business also from Indiana University. As part of his degree, he spent three months studying at École Nationale d’Administration in Paris and other national government schools across Europe, including Berlin and Warsaw. Post-grad, John served as an economic consultant with the City of Fort Wayne, a research assistant at the Hudson Institute, a Congressional Fellow, and as a Defense Analyst with the Government Accountability Office.
He has been posted in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, Tunisia, and Ukraine.
Program Director & Research Associate, Alyssa Bonk, B.A.
Alyssa Bonk is a graduate of the George Washington University’s Elliott School ofInternational Affairs with a concentration in Asian Studies. Ms. Bonk previously worked for the International Republican Institute, and with numerous campaigns as a PAC fundraiser. Her interests in international relations stems from her time as President of Model United Nations. Alyssa also has a passion for dressage. She been training and selling dressage horses since she was 5 years old. At the age of 11, she was the youngest to ever compete at the CDI-Olympic-qualifier, Dressage at Devon.
Contributing Scholars:
Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, Ph.D, LL.M., M.P.A.
Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins is the Founder and Executive Director of Women of Color Advancing Peace Security and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS). She is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Jenkins is currently the Chair of the Steering Committee of the International Women’s Conference on Preventing the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction to Non-State Actors, and the Chair of the Committee on Radioactive Sources: Applications and Alternative Technologies of the National Academies of Sciences. She is an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a Professorial Lecturer at the George Washington Elliott School of International Affairs. She is also a Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Schools of Nursing and Veterinary Science. She recently served as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House and a Visiting Dignitary at the LBJ School at the University of Texas in Austin.
Jenkins was nominated by President Barack Obama in April 2009 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in June 2009 as Special Envoy and Coordinator for Threat Reduction Programs in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN), U.S. Department of State (DOS). She served in that position until January 2017. Jenkins promoted a coordinated U.S. effort on threat reduction globally. Jenkins was the DOS lead for the 2010 – 2016 Nuclear Security Summits and the U.S. Representative to the G7 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction. She led diplomatic efforts promoting the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), helped establish the GHSA NGO Consortium, and founded the GHSA Next Generation Network. For her service, she was the 2016 ISN Nominee for the Secretary’s Award for Excellence in International Security Affairs. Prior to being an Ambassador, Jenkins worked at the Ford Foundation as the Program Officer for US Foreign and Security Policy, at the Rand Corporation, and as a Legal Adviser at the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA). Jenkins holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia; an LL.M. from the Georgetown University Law Center; an M.P.A. from the State University of New York at Albany; a J.D. from Albany Law School and a B.A. from Amherst College. She was a Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the JFK School at Harvard University at which time she also worked at the Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising at Harvard Law School where she advised law students on employment in the US government and public entities. Jenkins is a retired U.S. Naval Reserve Officer and received numerous awards for her military service. She is a member of the New York State Bar.
Edward P. Joseph, M.A., J.D.
Edward P. Joseph is a is adjunct professor and senior fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
With 15 years’ experience in conflict areas from the Balkans to the Middle East to Haiti, Edward P. Joseph is a foreign policy professional, commentator and lecturer who brings an on-the-ground perspective to his work.
Among his senior international positions, Edward served as the US-nominated Deputy Ambassador of one of the largest democracy and human rights missions in the world – the OSCE Mission in Kosovo. In April, 2012, Edward personally negotiated an eleventh-hour agreement between Serbia and Kosovo that averted a crisis and another violent confrontation between the two neighbors. The breakthrough accomplishment earned the praise of leaders on both sides, along with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and OSCE Secretary-General Lamberto Zannier.
Edward has the distinction of having served in every theatre and every conflict affected country in the Balkans. In a dozen years of service – with the UN, the US Army, NATO, OSCE, Catholic Relief Services and the International Crisis Group – Edward witnessed the dissolution of Yugoslavia and was an active participant in the international effort to bring peace. Edward also served on missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Haiti, and helps advance US policy in Libya with the National Council on US-Libya Relations.
A broadcast and print commentator, Edward has been published in virtually all major outlets, including The New York Times and Foreign Affairs. His article, ‘The Balkans, Interrupted’ was selected as one of ‘The Year’s Best.’ Edward’s analysis of Iran’s calculus after the Suleimani operation appears here.
Edward earned his J.D. at the University of Virginia School of Law, and his B.A. and M.A., respectively, from Johns Hopkins University, and its School of Advanced International Studies. Trained as a helicopter pilot in the Army Reserve, Edward is a veteran, deployed with NATO in Bosnia. He speaks Croatian / Serbian, and French, Italian and Spanish.
Dr. Jeffrey Mankoff, Ph.D, M.Phil,
Dr. Jeffrey Mankoff is deputy director and senior fellow with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program. He is the author of Russian Foreign Policy: The Return of Great Power Politics (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009) and a frequent commentator on international security, Russian foreign policy, regional security in the Caucasus and Central Asia, ethnic conflict, and energy security. Before joining CSIS, he served as an adviser on U.S.-Russia relations at the U.S. Department of State as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. From 2008 to 2010, he was associate director of International Security Studies at Yale University and an adjunct fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. In addition to his policy research, Dr. Mankoff teaches courses on international security and Central Asia at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Dr. Mankoff has held academic fellowships at Harvard, Yale, and Moscow State Universities. He holds dual B.A.s in international studies and Russian from the University of Oklahoma and an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in diplomatic history from Yale.
Steven M. Schneebaum, M.A., LL.M.
Steven M. Schneebaum, Interim Director of the International Law and Organizations Program for the 2019-20 academic year at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He has been a lawyer in private practice in Washington, DC, and a university teacher of international legal topics, for four decades. After partnerships in three national law firms, he established his own firm in 2014, SMS Law DC, PC. He has taught international advocacy at SAIS since 1990, the law of the European Union from 2000 through 2007, and constitutional law since 2008.
Schneebaum currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the American Branch of the International Law Association, the International Law Students Association (of which he was founding Chairman), the Council for Court Excellence, and Child Justice, Inc.; as well as advisory boards to the British-American Project and the Center for Justice and Accountability. He is a Counsellor to the American Society of International Law, and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. In addition to Johns Hopkins SAIS, Schneebaum has taught at Catholic, American, Cornell, George Washington, and Oxford Universities.
He was educated at Yale University, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude, at Oberlin College (Master of Arts in philosophy), Oxford University (Bachelor and Master of Arts in jurisprudence, the former with First Class Honors), and George Washington University Law School (Master of Comparative Law). His honors and awards include the Msgr. Geno Baroni Caritas Award from Catholic Community Services (2005), the United States Army Commander’s Award for Public Service (2009), and the Pamela Young Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Law Students Association (2018). He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and numerous federal trial and appellate bars, including that of the United States Supreme Court.
Dr. Jeffrey Stacey, Ph.D, M.Phil.
Dr. Jeffrey A. Stacey is a national security and global development consultant, and contributor to the New York Times. He is a former State Department official and Senior Adviser to the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations, Professor of Political Science and International Relations at George Washington and Tulane Universities, Chief of Staff at the European Parliament, and Speech Writer in the British House of Commons. His consulting clients have included the United Nations, the U.S. Defense Department, the State Department, NATO, the Asian Development Bank, the European Union, and multiple individual governments (most recently Afghanistan, UAE, Tajikistan, Somalia, and Pakistan) as well as various think tanks, business firms, and consultancies. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University, MPhil from Oxford University, and Honors BA from the University of Michigan.
A specialist in international security, geo-economics, global development, and governance, Dr. Stacey has spent equal parts of a near 20-year career in government, academia, and the private sector dealing with diplomacy, alliance building, facilitation, global initiatives, pre and post conflict stabilization, and economic / trade / investment strategies. He has lived in Washington, London, New York, Brussels, New Orleans, and Oxford and has worked in and/or traveled to more than 80 countries, including in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Europe. He is a frequent keynote or guest speaker, and writer in the Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Atlantic, U.S. News and World Report, the American Interest, the National Interest, Der Speigel, the Washington Post, and the New York Times inter alia. Stacey is the author of “Integrating Europe” by Oxford University Press and is currently completing on a book entitled “Rise of the East, End of the West?”