International Conference the future of transatlantic relations: Turning a new page on enhanced cooperation amid new security challenges

Mr. Alper Coşkun 

Alper Coşkun is a senior fellow within the Europe Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC. His research focuses on Turkish foreign policy, especially in relation to the United States and Europe.

He is a retired career diplomat of thirty-two years with extensive experience in both bilateral and multilateral settings. He was the director general for international security affairs at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2016-2019), covering NATO, transatlantic relations, as well as Euro-Atlantic security/defense and arms control/disarmament matters. Before that, he was ambassador to Baku, Azerbaijan (2012-2016), where he oversaw one of Turkey’s most active and largest diplomatic missions with a wide multiagency composition.

He has held positions within the Turkish Foreign Ministry at various levels on issues related to maritime jurisdiction affairs, counter terrorism/intelligence, and NATO/Euro-Atlantic security matters. He has served in the cabinets of both the minister of foreign affairs and the undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His foreign assignments include Turkish missions in Moscow, Athens, and the United Nations, as well as NATO, where he was the deputy permanent representative. Previously, he was a faculty member of the NATO Defense College in Rome. He is married and has two daughters.

Mr. Bruno Tertrais

Bruno Tertrais is Deputy Director of the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS). His areas of expertise include geopolitics and international relations, strategic and military affairs, nuclear deterrence and non-proliferation, US policy and transatlantic relations, security in the Middle East and in Asia. Tertrais is a member of the Group of Eminent Persons of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission; of the Group of Eminent Persons for the Substantive Advancement of Nuclear Disarmament; of the International Institute for Strategic Studies; of the editorial board of The Washington Quarterly; of the editorial board of the Journal of Security and Strategic Analyses. He is also a Senior Fellow at Institut Montaigne, and a scientific adviser to the French government’s High Commissioner for Planning.

Ms Tara Varma

Tara Varma is a policy fellow and head of the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, where she follows French foreign policy and European and Asian security developments.

 She looks particularly at current French defence and security proposals in the European framework, as well as the latest developments in the transatlantic relationship. She is also interested in Asian security, and the role Europeans could play in it, notably in the Indo-Pacific region. Varma joined ECFR in January 2015 as a coordinator and then deputy head of the Paris office. She previously worked and lived in Shanghai, Delhi and Paris. She graduated from Sciences Po Lille and SOAS in London in International Relations, with a focus on Asian Politics and Indian and Chinese foreign policies.

Ms Elena Lazarou

Elena Lazarou is the Acting Head of the External Policies Unit of the European Parliamentary Research Service. Her work focuses on global governance, transatlantic relations and EU foreign and security policy. Previously she headed the Center for International Relations of the Getulio Vargas Foundation, Brazil. She received a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Cambridge and has held research positions at the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics. She is an Associate Fellow of the "US and Americas" programme at Chatham House and of ELIAMEP.

Amb. Elena Poptodorova

Amb. Elena Poptodorova has spent a lifetime in diplomacy, international relations and global and regional security. She is currently Vice President of the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria overseeing trans-Atlantic relations and the 3SI. She retired from diplomatic service in 2016, when she ended her second term as Bulgaria's Ambassador to the United States (2010-2016), her first one spanning from 2002 through 2008. During her career at the MFA of Bulgaria she held various positions - Director of the Himan Rights and International Organizations Directorate, Director of the NATO and International Security Directorate, Spokesperson of MFA, Ambassador-at-large for the Black Sea Region.

In 1990 she ran in the first democratic election in Bulgaria and three successive election rounds to remain a Member of Parliament until 2001, when she returned to the diplomatic service. In Parliament she served on the Committees of Foreign Relations and of National Security, among others. 

She also served in Bulgaria's Embassy in Rome and was Bulgaria's Consul General to the Republic of San Marino.

Ms. Poptodorova got her BA and MA in the "Kliment Ohridski" University of Sofia.

Ms Marie Brethous

Marie Brethous is an Associate Analyst in charge of the Transatlantic Relations and EU-NATO affairs portfolio at the EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS). She specialises in security and defence policy analysis, with a focus on the international security community.

Marie formerly worked at NATO in the Political Affairs and Security Policy (PASP) division, where she analysed political and policy developments in NATO partner countries in Western Europe as well as the Black Sea and South Caucasus regions.

Her prior experience also includes EU Government Affairs at Siemens AG, Transatlantic Relations at the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) and policy development for DG EXPO at the European Parliament.

She is a member of Women in international Security (WiiS) since 2018, and a co-organiser of the upcoming 2021/2022 WiiS Mentoring Programme - a professional development scheme for women active in the fields of international relations, security and defence.

Mr. Plamen Tonchev 

Plamen Tonchev has been Head of Asia Unit at the Institute of International Economic Relations (IIER), Greece, since 1998. As an IIER representative, Plamen is a founding member of the European Think-tank Network on China (ETNC). In addition, he is a co-founder of the Southeast European Centre for Asia-Pacific Studies (SEECAPS). Plamen sits on the EU Chapter of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (EU CSCAP) committee and the Asia-Europe Sustainable Connectivity (AESCON) Scientific Committee.

Mr. Sebastian Carr

Sebastian Carr took up the post of Head of Europe and Canada, in the UK Ministry of Defence’s Directorate of Euro-Atlantic Security, in September 2020. He is responsible for bilateral relations with countries in Europe plus Canada, defence policy on a number of multilateral groups (including EI2, JEF, CJEF), and devolution issues.

Sebastian’s early career included posts in future IT systems, international policy, high-threat counterterrorism in the Cabinet Office, and change management of acquisition reform. Following promotion to Assistant-Head level, he was the lead Defence analyst for the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War. Subsequent posts include leading the team responsible for augmenting civilian personnel to support Defence’s top priorities and, most recently, as the Deputy Head of Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

In 2015/16, Sebastian attended the NATO Defense College Senior Course in Rome, and has a First Class Honours degree in Computer Science. He is married to Katie, and lives in Surrey with their daughter Evelyn.

Mr. Vladimir Shopov

Vladimir Shopov is a visiting fellow with the Asia Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

He was a full-time lecturer in politics at Sofia University (2004-2006) and an adjunct professor at Sofia University (1997-1998) and the New Bulgarian University (2012-2014). He has been an external lecturer on the European Union, NATO, security, and south-eastern European affairs at the Diplomatic Institute of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2004. He is currently teaching on Asian Affairs in the Politics Department of Sofia University as an adjunct professor. He has been a foreign affairs columnist at Forbes Bulgaria since 2011. He is a co-founder and columnist of Reduta.bg, a Bulgarian website for analytical journalism.