Meet our diverse roster of international experts, thought leaders, and practitioners. Discover the unique insights and experiences each guest brings to our discussions on global risk, security, and geopolitics.
Dr. Katzman is a Senior Advisor at the Soufan Group and a Senior Fellow at the Soufan Center, positions he assumed after retiring in late 2022 from his longtime position as a Senior Middle East Analyst at the Congressional Research Service (CRS). He is also a Senior Research Advisor at the Global Insights Group’s Strategic Analysis and Situational Awareness Group. During his CRS career specialising on Iran, U.S. sanctions on Iran, the Arab Gulf states, Iraq, Afghanistan, and…
Assem Dandashly is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science at Maastricht University. He is an expert on the EU-MENA relations. Prior to joining Maastricht University in September 2012, Assem was a Research Fellow at the Kolleg-Forschergruppe “The Transformative Power of Europe” Freie Universität Berlin. Assem holds a PhD in Political Science (2012)…
Elisa Garbil is the Podcast Producer and Investigative Research Lead at The International Risk Podcast, where she leads on strategic editorial direction, in-depth research, and high-level stakeholder engagement. This role has sharpened her ability to operate at the intersection of investigative inquiry, strategic communications, and global risk analysis – delivering content that is timely, credible,…
Bruce Jones is a senior fellow with the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution; he also works with the Center for Asia Policy Studies. He is also a consulting professor at the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University. From 2015 to 2020, Jones previously…
Stefan Wolff is Professor of International Security in Political Science and International Studies, at the University of Birmingham. A political scientist by background, he specialises in the management of contemporary security challenges, especially in the prevention and settlement of ethnic conflicts, in post-conflict state-building in deeply divided and war-torn societies, and in contemporary geopolitics and great-power…
Dr Joachim Schüz is Head of the Environment and Lifestyle Epidemiology Branch at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer research agency of the World Health Organization, located in Lyon, France (IARC/WHO). The Branch leads the IARC/WHO research on causes and primary prevention of cancer on occupational hazards, environmental contaminants, some lifestyle factors,…
Petra Verdonk is an occupational health psychologist who earned her PhD in 2007 at Radboud UMC in Nijmegen with the dissertation Gender Matters in Medical Education. Most recently, she founded her own agency, Beyond Boundary, where she works at the intersection of gender, intersectionality, health, and the climate crisis. Her research and teaching focus on…
Zac Staples is a former U.S. Navy officer and the founder and CEO of Fathom5, an industrial defence-technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Since 2018 he has led Fathom5 to uninterrupted growth and profitability. Zac and the Fathom5 team are building Brilliant Machines with new actuators, cyber resilient designs, and AI optimization. Among the company’s many accomplishments…
Dr. Abha Saxena is an independent bioethics advisor for the past seven years, with a special interest in training and research in global bioethics. Her areas of interest are in the ethics of infectious disease outbreaks, health systems research, healthy ageing, adolescent health care, human challenge studies, data collection, mining and sharing and new technologies…
Dr. Allysa Czerwinsky (she/her) is a Research Fellow in AI Trust and Security and recently earned her PhD from the University of Manchester. Her research explores how male supremacism and misogynist extremism manifest in digital environments, accounting for the complex interplays between technology, harm, and violence. Her doctoral work traces the narratives present in stories shared to several…
