Advisory Board
Tod Wolters
General Tod D. Wolters is the former Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) and commander US European command (EUCOM). As the SACEUR, he led Europe’s transition out of Afghanistan, ensured the COVID-19 health crisis did not transform into a security crisis, and led NATO’s military allies and partners through the organization’s response to the largest invasion of a European nation since World War II. He united military activities alongside the leadership of all thirty NATO member nations and was instrumental in advancing the future transitions of Sweden and Finland into NATO. In addition to commanding all European military forces, Wolters worked closely with presidents, ambassadors, and chiefs of defense to improve their nations’ abilities to defend and generate peace. His comprehensive approach dramatically improved the security disposition of the European continent.
Prior to his leadership position at NATO and EUCOM, Wolters served as the commander, US Air Forces Europe, commander US Air Forces Africa, commander NATO Allied Air Command and director Joint Air Power Competence Center from 2016 to 2019. General Wolters has also served as the director of operations of the US Joint Staff, director of operations of the US Air Force, commander 12th Air Force/Air Component Command US Southern Command, director, legislative liaison/US Air Force, deputy commander of US and NATO Air Forces Afghanistan, director of operations US Air Force Space Command, and as a deputy commander for Combined Security Assistance Command Afghanistan.
Additionally, Wolters served in key leadership positions at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels of the United States military. These positions included command of three tactical air wings, a fighter group, a fighter squadron and staff positions at USAF Headquarters and US Pacific Command. Wolters has fought and commanded during Operations Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), and Southern Watch (Iraq). His awards and decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star and the Air Force Meritorious Service Medal. Additionally, Wolters has logged more than five thousand flight hours, primarily in the F-15C, F-22, OV-10, T-38, and A-10 aircrafts.
Wolters graduated from the US Air Force Academy in 1982. His military education includes the US Air Force Fighter Weapons School, Air Command and Staff College, Armed Forces Staff College, and the US Army War College. He holds master’s degrees from Embry-Riddle Aero University and the US Army War College. Additionally, Wolters previously served as a senior executive fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Ian Brzezinski
Ian Brzezinski is a resident senior fellow with the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and is a member of the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Advisors Group. He brings to the Council more than two decades of experience in US national security matters, having served in senior policy positions in the US Department of Defense and the US Congress. He currently leads the Brzezinski Group, which provides strategic insight and advice to government and commercial clients.
Brzezinski served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO policy (2001-05). His office formulated, coordinated, and executed bilateral and regional engagement strategies and defense guidance with the Joint Staff, Unified Combatant Commands, and Defense Department elements. His lead responsibilities included NATO expansion; Alliance force planning and transformation; and NATO operations in the Balkans, the Mediterranean, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Key highlights of his tenure include the expansion of NATO membership in 2004; the consolidation and reconfiguration of the Alliance’s command structure; the standing up of the NATO Response Force; and the coordination of European military contributions to US and NATO-led operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans.
Brzezinski served for seven years on Capitol Hill, first as a legislative assistant for national security affairs to the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Bill Roth, (1995–2000) and then as a senior professional staff member on the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (2000–2001). In these capacities, he drafted and implemented legislative initiatives and strategies concerning US interests in Europe, Russia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. As the staff coordinator of the Senate NATO Observer Group, he facilitated coordination and communication between the US Senate and the executive branch on NATO enlargement, NATO operations in the Balkans, and Alliance force modernization, among other issues.
Brzezinski served as a volunteer in Ukraine (1993-1994) advising the Ukrainian National Security Council, Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry, and Parliament. He served as a member of the policy planning staff in the Defense Department (1991–93), a consultant to the Center for Naval Analysis (1991–1992) and a support analyst/information assistant at the National Security Council (1986–1987). He also worked for five years as a principal at Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc., providing policy and technical support to US combatant commands and foreign clients.
For his public service, Brzezinski has been awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service; the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gedimas; the Latvian Ministry of Defense Award; the Romanian Medal for National Service, Order of Commander; and the Order of Merit, Republic of Poland, Officer Class.
Paula Dobriansky
Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky, a foreign policy expert and former diplomat specializing in national security affairs, is a senior fellow at the Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and vice chair of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.
From 2010 to 2012, she was Senior Vice President and Global Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs at Thomson Reuters, responsible for designing and implementing a corporate approach for engagement in Washington, DC and other key capitals around the globe. She was instrumental in the development of Thomson Reuters’ financial regulatory strategy. During this time, she was also appointed the Distinguished National Security Chair at the US Naval Academy. From 2001 to 2009, Ambassador Dobriansky served as Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs. Among her primary accomplishments, she established and led the US-India, US-China, and US- Brazil Global Issues Fora. In February 2007, as the President’s Envoy to Northern Ireland, Ambassador Dobriansky received the Secretary of State’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal, for her contribution to the historic devolution of power in Belfast.
During her more than twenty-five years in national security affairs, Ambassador Dobriansky has held many Senate-confirmed, senior level positions in the U.S. government including Director of European and Soviet Affairs at the National Security Council, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Associate Director for Policy and Programs at the United States Information Agency and Deputy Head, U.S. Delegation to the 1990 Copenhagen Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). From 1997 to 2001, she served as Senior Vice President and Director of the Council on Foreign Relations and was the first George F. Kennan Senior Fellow on Russian and Eurasian Studies.
A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Diplomacy, Ambassador Dobriansky served on the Defense Policy Board, the Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board, and was Chair of Exim Bank’s Chairman’s Council on China Competition. She is an Atlantic Council Board member, a Trustee of the Trilateral Commission, on the Board of Advisors of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and Chair of the Bush Center’s Women’s Initiative Policy Advisory Council. Ambassador Dobriansky received a BSFS summa cum laude in international politics from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, as well as an MA and PhD in Soviet political and military affairs from Harvard University.
Chris Donnelly
As a graduate of Manchester University in Russian Studies and a reserve officer in the British Army Intelligence Corps, Chris Donnelly helped to establish and later headed, the British Army’s Soviet Studies Research Centre at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. From here he supported the setting up of the US Army’s Foreign Military Studies Office at Ft. Leavenworth and, in the early 1980s, served as the UK MOD representative on the expert group studying Soviet weapons design for the DoD Office of Net Assessment. He also held an Adjunct Professorship at Carnegie Mellon University and Georgia Tech.
Between 1989-2003, as Special Adviser to four NATO Secretaries General, he was closely involved in dealing with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the reform of the newly emerging democracies in Central and Eastern Europe, helping to bring many of them into NATO. He left NATO in 2003 to set up and run the UK Defence Academy’s Advanced Research and Assessment Group. In 2010 he left the Senior Civil Service to become co-Founder of the Institute for Statecraft, dealing with new security threats and responses – specifically, new forms of conflict and how to transform national institutions so that they are fit for today’s rapidly changing security environment. In this post in 2015 he set up and directed the Integrity Initiative, an international programme to expose and counter disinformation and malign influence. In 2020 he stepped down as Director of the Institute to take up the post of Principal Counsellor at Earendel Associates, a private company working on national and international security issues.
Chris Donnelly has produced three books as well as many articles on questions of defense, security, strategy, and statecraft. He has held appointments as Specialist Adviser to three UK Defence Secretaries (both Labour and Conservative) and was a member of PM Margaret Thatcher’s Soviet advisory team from 1983-9. He has served as Specialist Adviser both on the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee and on the Defence Committee. From 2015-8 he sat on the official team responsible for scrutinizing the reform of the UK’s Reserve Forces for the Defence Secretary. Until 2021 he was: adviser to the Foreign Minister of Lithuania; a Security and Justice Senior Mentor in the UK’s Stabilisation Unit, and; Honorary Colonel, Specialist Group Military Intelligence. For over 20 years he has served as Trustee of the London-based charity Forward Thinking, which undertakes reconciliation work in the Middle East and North Africa.
James G. Foggo
Admiral James G. Foggo, U.S. Navy (ret.), is the Dean of the Center for Maritime Strategy. He is a 1981 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. ADM Foggo is also an Olmsted Scholar and Moreau Scholar, earning a Master of Public Administration at Harvard University and a Diplome d’Etudes Approfondies in Defense and Strategic Studies from the University of Strasbourg, France.
He commanded the attack submarine USS Oklahoma City (SSN 723) in 1998, which was awarded the Submarine Squadron 8 Battle Efficiency “E” award and the Admiral Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy, for being the most improved ship in the Atlantic Fleet. Following command of USS Oklahoma City, he would go on to command eight more times to include: Submarine Squadron 6 in Norfolk, Virginia; Submarine Group 8; Allied Submarines South; the U.S. 6th Fleet; Allied Striking and Support Forces NATO; Naval Forces Europe; Naval Forces Africa; and Allied Joint Forces Command (NATO), all headquartered in Naples, Italy.
During these command tours, he participated in combat operations as the Operations Officer for Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn (Libya) in 2011 and Commander Naval Forces Europe for strike operations against Syrian chemical weapons sites in April 2018.
Throughout his career, Foggo has been a champion of the Navy as an extended arm of diplomacy. He maintained close relationships with the U.S. ambassadors in his area of responsibility from Europe to Africa and into the Middle East. He sponsored numerous regional ambassadors conferences at his headquarters in Naples to address security challenges in the Balkans, Mediterranean, and the Black Sea regions. Throughout 2021, he taught a seminar at the Foreign Service Institute on civil-military relations for rising foreign service officers. In November 2021, Foggo was named to the American Academy of Diplomacy as one of a handful of retired flag officers who serve alongside more than 200 retired ambassadors with the common goal of enhancing American diplomacy around the globe.
Foggo is a Distinguished Fellow of the Center for European Policy Analysis and a Distinguished Fellow of the Council on Competitiveness. He is a member of the board of directors of the Olmsted Foundation and the Naval Historical Foundation. He occupies a seat on the editorial board of the Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Explorer’s Club of New York. Admiral Foggo sits on the Senior Military Advisors Group at the United States Institute of Peace.
His awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit and NATO Meritorious Service Medal. In addition, he is the recipient of the French Chevalier de l’Ordre National de Merité and the Legion d’Honneur, the Cross of Saint George (Portugal), the White Cross of the Naval Order of the Spanish Armada, the Meritorious Service Cross from the Governor General of Canada, the rank of Commendatore from the President of Italy, and Knight of the Grand Cross of Kingdom of Two Sicilies.
Ben Hodges
Lieutenant General (ret.) Ben Hodges is the former Commanding General of US Army Europe (2014-2017). He currently serves as NATO Senior Mentor for Logistics. He is also a Distinguished Fellow with GLOBSEC in Slovakia and serves on the International Advisory Board of the New Strategy Center in Romania and the Warsaw Security Forum in Poland. In addition to the Renew Democracy Initiative, he serves on several civic advocacy boards including Atlantik Bruecke, Arthur Burns Fellowship, Razom for Ukraine, Veterans Help Group, and Spirit of America. He consults for several companies on Europe, NATO, and the European Union, and he is co-author of the book, Future War and the Defence of Europe, published by Oxford University Press.
He was most recently Senior Advisor to Human Rights First, a non-profit, nonpartisan international human rights organization based in the United States. Prior to joining Human Rights First, he held the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
A native of Quincy, Florida, General Hodges graduated from the United States Military Academy in May 1980 and was commissioned as an Infantry Officer in the US Army.
After his first assignment as a Lieutenant in Garlstedt, Germany, he commanded Infantry units at the Company, Battalion, and Brigade levels in the 101st Airborne Division, including the First Brigade Combat Team “Bastogne” in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (2003-2004). His other operational assignments include Chief of Operations for Multi-National Corps-Iraq in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (2005-2006) and Director of Operations, Regional Command South in Kandahar, Afghanistan (2009-2010).
General Hodges has also served in a variety of Joint and Army Staff positions, including Chief of Plans for the 2nd Infantry Division in the Republic of Korea, Director of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Coordination Cell on the Joint Staff, and Chief of Army Congressional Liaison. From 2012-2014 he served as Commander, NATO Allied Land Command in İzmir, Turkey. His last military assignment was as Commanding General, United States Army Europe in Wiesbaden, Germany from 2014 to 2017.
He retired from the U.S. Army in January 2018 and lives today with his wife in Frankfurt, Germany.
Gordon Humphrey
Gordon Humphrey served two terms in the United States Senate from 1979 to 1991, representing New Hampshire. He was a member of the Foreign Relations, Armed Services the Judiciary Committees. Keeping a term-limit pledge, he did not seek a third term.
Upon leaving Washington shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union and at a time when the United States had high hopes Russia’s nascent democracy would sink deep roots, Humphrey traveled extensively in that vast country, literally from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, assisting American firms that were seeking to enter the Russian market.
Senator Humphrey has devoted his efforts over the last five years to advocating the revitalization of US public diplomacy, a national security implement best described as the persuasion of foreign audiences to the values of freedom and the rule of law. In his writings, Humphrey cites as a model the effective use of public diplomacy during of the Cold War when the U.S. and other Western nations persuaded Soviet citizens that life on this side of the Iron Curtain was better than on theirs. His articles have been published by the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and The Hill.
As an example of public diplomacy,Humphrey maintains a Russian-language YouTube channel, NashiEmigranti, featuring video interviews with recent Russian immigrants in the U.S. who describe to the audience back home what America and Americans are really like.
In 2023, Humphrey received the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire Global Leadership Award in recognition of his efforts. He is a member of the board of the Public Diplomacy Council of America.
Humphrey attended the University of Maryland, and George Washington University. He is a US Air Force veteran and former airline pilot.
Adrian Zuckerman
Ambassador Zuckerman is a New York real estate and corporate attorney. He is currently Of Counsel to DLA Piper, bringing his unique skills as a lawyer and former government official to advise multinational corporations on legal, regulatory, and governmental affairs as they expand into emerging markets in Eastern Europe and around the world. He served as U.S. Ambassador to Romania from 2019 to 2021.
Under his leadership Romania signed a ten-year defense cooperation agreement with the United States that provided financial, military and strategic support and cooperation. He also advanced and helped structure an intergovernmental agreement between the US and Romania for the $8 billion refurbishment of the Cernavoda nuclear plant which included refurbishing one operating reactor and building two additional nuclear reactors. To help finance this project the Ambassador negotiated a $7 billion financing agreement with the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM). The Cernavoda project was the largest-ever joint project between the United States and Romania. The project financing was also the biggest financing agreement by Romania with EXIM as well as EXIM's single largest financing agreement. During Ambassador Zuckerman's tenure, Romania also implemented new economic and infrastructure initiatives as well as initiatives to combat organized crime, human trafficking, fraud, corruption, and intellectual property theft, among others.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis awarded Ambassador Zuckerman Romania's highest civilian award, the Star of Romania, Order of the Grand Cross.