ASCE 2026 Seminar

Dr. Marina Henke is a researcher and author on military interventions, peacekeeping, nuclear security and European security and defense policy. She currently works as Professor of International Relations at the Hertie School (Berlin, Germany). She is also the director of the Hertie Centre for International Security. ​Her current research focuses on intervention decision-making, nuclear security, and U.S. and European Grand Strategy.  Her academic work has been published in International Security, Security Studies, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Strategic Studies, International Peacekeeping, Providing for Peacekeeping, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, and Conflict Management and Peace Science among others. She is also the author of Constructing Allied Cooperation: Diplomacy, Payments, and Power in Multilateral Military Coalitions (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2019). The book was awarded the Lepgold Book Prize for best book in international relations in 2019, the APSA International Collaboration Section "Best Book Award" 2020, and the ISA Diplomatic Studies "Best Book Award" 2021.

Dr. Ulrich Schlie is a historian, political scientist and, since 2020, Director of the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS) and Henry Kissinger Professor for Security and Strategy Research at the Institute for Political Science at the University of Bonn. He currently holds a Joint Research Professorship at the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Ulrich Schlie was Professor of Practice at Tufts University (Medford, MA/USA), Fellow at the Weatherhead Center of Harvard University (Cambridge, MA/USA), Visiting Fellow at the Nato Defense College Rome, Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge/UK and Professeur associé as holder of the Alfred Grosser Chair at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) as well as holder of the Chair of Diplomacy II at Andrássy University Budapest. After studying Medieval and Modern History, Political Science and Romance Studies at the University of Bonn, Ulrich Schlie worked at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Ebenhausen/Isar from 1991 to 1993. He then worked in the German Foreign Service for over 27 years and was Head of the Policy Planning Staff of the Federal Minister of Defense from 2005 to 2012 and Political Director at the Federal Ministry of Defense in Berlin from 2012 to 2014. In February 2020, he completed his habilitation at Andrássy University in Budapest with a thesis on the strategic change in the foreign and security policy of the Federal Republic of Germany since 1949. In 1992, he was awarded a doctorate at the University of Bonn with a thesis on "Secret talks with the opponent. The Western Powers and the Peace Issue in World War II".

Christian Strowa assumed the roles of Director of the DWIH New York and Director of the DAAD Regional Office New York in September 2024. He completed his studies in American Studies, Psychology, and Media Studies at the University of Bonn, and pursued Comparative Literature and Philosophy at New York University. Additionally, he holds a postgraduate degree from UCL’s Institute of Education (IoE). He has held teaching roles at Dublin City University and University College London. Before his appointment to New York, he served as Head of Division “Knowledge and Network” at the DAAD’s headquarters in Bonn, where he was responsible for the DAAD’s network of overseas offices, the international DAAD Academy iDA, third party funding and the Centre for International Academic Cooperation KIWi. Prior to this, he led the Section “Scholarship Programmes Asia and the Pacific” and served as Deputy Director of the DAAD’s London Office.