Niels Annen has been a member of the German Bundestag, with some interruptions, since 2005 and Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office since 2018. Prior to this he was a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and spokesperson on foreign affairs for the SPD parliamentary group. He studied history, Spanish and international public policy in Berlin, Hamburg, Washington and Madrid. From 2011 to 2013 he worked for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation as an advisor on international policy analysis.

Jean Asselborn is Minister for Foreign and European Affairs and Minister for Immigration and Asylum in Luxembourg. He was first elected as a Member of Parliament 30 years ago. For a time he was leader of the Luxembourg Labour Party (LSAP) and Vice-President of the Party of European Socialists. Jean Asselborn is currently the longest-serving foreign minister in the European Union.

Sabine Fandrych studied political science, ethnology and Portuguese linguistics at the LMU in Munich (Magister 1996). After a period of consultancy and research work in Mozambique and Angola, she received her PhD from the Institute of Political Science at the University of Hamburg in 2000. Between 2000 and 2007 she held several posts including director of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) office in Angola and advisor for organisational development and reintegration policy to the German development agency giz (then GTZ, 2004-2006). From 2007 to 2010, Fandrych was director of the FES Ethiopia and African Union offices before moving back to Germany in 2010 as director of the FES office in Baden-Württemberg. From 2017-2021, she was head of the Political Academy Department of the FES in Bonn. She has been an Executive Board Member of the FES since July 2021.

Beatrice Fihn is the Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish nuclear weapons (ICAN), the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning campaign coalition that works to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons. Ms. Fihn led the campaign since 2014 and has worked to mobilize civil society throughout the development of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that Entered into Force on January 22nd 2021. Previously, she managed the disarmament programme at the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the Reaching Critical Will project as well as worked with the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. She has delivered keynote lectures on weapons law, humanitarian law, civil society engagement in diplomacy and multilateral institutions, as well as the gender perspective on disarmament work.

Felipe González Márquez was for many years the leader of the Spanish government. He played a central role in the democratic transition process as the third prime minister after the restoration in the late 1970s. During his term of office from 1982 to 1996, he was instrumental in pushing forward the modernisation of Spain and its full integration into the European community. From 1974 to 1997 he was General Secretary of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party PSOE. Although he has since retired from politics, the former President continues to be active in various fields in Europe and Latin America. In 2007, he was appointed to the Council of Wise Men on the Future of Europe, where he acted as chair.

Gabriela Heinrich studied Slavic languages and culture, general and comparative literature and media consulting. She was a city councillor in Nuremberg from 2002 to 2013 and spokesperson on integration. Gabriela Heinrich has been a member of the Bundestag since 2013. She initially worked in the fields of development, human rights and domestic policy. Since 2019, she has been responsible for foreign policy, defence, development and human rights as deputy leader of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag. Gabriela Heinrich has chaired the Maghreb Parliamentary Friendship Group since 2014; between 2015 and 2019 she was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (deputy since 2019). Gabriela Heinrich also works in a voluntary capacity as chairperson of the pro familia organisation in Nuremberg.

Barbara Kunz works at IFSH where she focusses on the question as to how Europe can jointly respond to the security challenges of the 21st century. The debate on European "strategic autonomy" and its possible manifestations are currently her main research interests, not least against the background of changing transatlantic relations. In this context, she is particularly concerned with the different national approaches - especially in Germany, France and Northern Europe - and developments in the relevant organisations, first and foremost the EU and NATO. Articles and commentaries on her research topics have appeared in War on the Rocks, Internationale Politik, Le Monde, Zeit online and as policy papers for European and American think tanks such as Ifri, NUPI or the German Marshall Fund.

Andrea Maurer is a political correspondent at the ZDF Berlin Studio. After training as a journalist at ZDF, Germany’s national public television broadcaster, she worked for a long time as a reporter for the ZDF morning show “Morgenmagazin”, wrote for the cultural affairs programme "aspekte" and travelled abroad for the ZDF main editorial office. Her main areas of focus are defence and security policy, domestic policy and development aid.

Helga Maria Schmid was appointed OSCE Secretary General in December 2020 for a three-year term. She joined the diplomatic service as assistant private secretary to the minister for European Affairs in 1990. After this, Schmid held several positions including political advisor to Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, head of cabinet for Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and press officer at the German Embassy in Washington. Prior to her appointment as OSCE Secretary General, she was Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS), as well as Deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs from 2011 to 2016. Previously, she was Director of the Policy Planning and Early Warning Unit of the High Representative Javier Solana in the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union in Brussels.

Nils Schmid became a member of the State Parliament of Baden-Württemberg in 1997. After his re-election to the state parliament in 2001, he was financial policy spokesman for the SPD state parliamentary group. In 2006, his parliamentary group elected him as its deputy leader. He was elected leader of the SPD Baden-Württemberg in 2009 after winning an internal membership poll, an office which he held until 2016. From 2011 to 2016, he was Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs in the State of Baden-Württemberg as well as Deputy Minister President. Following his election to the German Bundestag in September 2017, Nils Schmid resigned from his seat in the state parliament. Since 2018, he has been spokesperson of the SPD parliamentary group on foreign affairs. He is also a member of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly.

Ursula Schröder has been Academic Director of the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg and Professor of Political Science at the University of Hamburg since 2017. Prior to this, she was Professor of International Security Policy at the Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science at the Free University of Berlin. She studied at the Humboldt University and the Free University in Berlin and at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth, Wales, and completed her PhD at the European University Institute in Florence. Ursula Schröder's research work includes the reorganisation of the European security architecture, questions concerning the relationship between democracy and security, and international peace operations and state-building projects. As part of the Hamburg Cluster of Excellence 'Climate, Climatic Change and Society', she is investigating when and under what conditions climate change may lead to conflict or to cooperation. Another research project examines the role of police officers deployed on international peace-building and state-building missions.

Martin Schulz is Chairman of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. He was previously leader of the SPD, candidate for the German chancellorship, member of the 19th German Bundestag and a long-standing member of the European Parliament where he was President for two terms from 2012 to 2017. Martin Schulz was awarded the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen for his significant services to strengthening the parliament and democratic legitimacy in the EU.

Jens Stoltenberg was appointed NATO Secretary General in October 2014. As former Prime Minister of Norway and UN Special Envoy, Mr Stoltenberg has always been a strong advocate of greater global and transatlantic cooperation. Stoltenberg's mandate as NATO Secretary General has been extended until the end of September 2022. Under his leadership, NATO has responded to a more challenging security environment by implementing the largest reinforcement of its collective defence since the Cold War, increasing the readiness of its forces and deploying combat troops in the eastern part of the Alliance. Before joining NATO, Jens Stoltenberg was UN Special Envoy on Climate Change from 2013 to 2014. He has also chaired high-level UN panels on climate financing and coherence between development, humanitarian aid and environmental policy.

Dr Kira Vinke is head of the newly founded Centre for Climate and Foreign Policy at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). She is also co-chair of the Advisory Board to the German Federal Government on Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding and works as a scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) where she led the East Africa Peru India Climate Capacities (EPICC) project before joining DGAP. Until 2018, Kira Vinke was a research assistant to the PIK Director. In this capacity, she worked as a consultant for the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) from 2014-2016. She contributed her expertise as a consultant to the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Asian Development Bank. She has extensive field research experience in South Asia, the Pacific and the Sahel.

Natasha Walker is an expert in communication and since 1995 has focused her work on the design and facilitation of complex dialogue processes. She enables effective strategy implementation, sustainable change and smart organisational development in organisations all over the world, also through online events. She designs and facilitates long-term transformation and broad-based participation processes and is a leading facilitator for exclusive high-level panels and workshops at board and ministerial level. Natasha Walker advises governments and research institutions on citizen participation and facilitates innovative citizen participation processes. Her many years of work have enabled her to build up extensive know-how in various fields, such as Agenda 2030. She studied English Literature and Modern Languages (German) at the University of Oxford and the University of Göttingen.

Norbert Walter-Borjans has been co-leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany together with Saskia Esken since December 2019. He holds a PhD in economics. From 1991 to 1996, he was deputy spokesman of the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia under Minister President Johannes Rau (SPD) and from 1996 to 1998 government spokesman. In 1999, he moved to the Saarland where he was State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs before returning to Düsseldorf in 2004 as State Minister of Finance of North Rhine-Westphalia. Walter-Borjans was Minister of Finance in NRW from 2010 to 2017. In addition to the successful consolidation of the state budget, he made a name for himself through his fight against tax evasion and for tax justice. Thanks to the analysis of tax CDs and other data carriers initiated by Norbert Walter-Borjans, 7.2 billion euros in previously evaded taxes were repaid.

Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul is Vice-President of the Friends of the Global Fund Europe and a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development. Ms Wieczorek-Zeul was Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development and Governor of the World Bank from 1998 to 2009. She was also a member of the German Bundestag from 1987 to 2013. Throughout her career, she has been an advocate for women's and girls' health and for the concerns of HIV/AIDS victims and also campaigned for these issues in her government positions. Prior to becoming a minister and member of the Bundestag, Ms Wieczorek-Zeul was a member of the European Parliament (1979-1987). She was also deputy leader of her party, the SPD, from 1993 to 2005.

Dr Almut Wieland-Karimi has been Executive Director of the Centre for International Peace Operations (ZIF) since 2009. Previously, she worked for the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) for many years in different countries around the world, most recently as Country Director for USA and Canada based in Washington, DC. From 2002 to 2005, she set up the FES office in Kabul (Afghanistan). She is a member of the international advisory board of UNITAR, the advisory board of the Federal Academy for Security Policy (BAKS), the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College and the Mercator Foundation. After graduating in Islamic Studies at the University of Bonn, she wrote her doctoral thesis on the role of religious leaders in Afghanistan at the Humboldt University in Berlin.