Valbona Zeneli

Dr. Valbona Zeneli is one of Europe’s foremost authorities on transatlantic security, strategic competition, and the geopolitics of the Euro-Atlantic space. She is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council (Europe Center and Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security’s Transatlantic Security Initiative), Friends of Europe, the Florence School of Transnational Governance (European University Institute), and the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). A political economist and national security expert with over two decades of experience spanning government, academia, and the private sector, she has advised ministers, military commanders, ambassadors, and parliamentarians across Europe and Eurasia — and has testified as an expert witness before the U.S. Congress. For twelve years (2011–2023), Dr. Zeneli served as Professor of National Security Studies and Chair of Strategic Engagement at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany — a flagship U.S.-German security institution. There she designed and led Senior Executive Seminars and Tailored Seminars for Parliamentarians on behalf of both the U.S. Department of Defense and the German Federal Ministry of Defense, shaping the strategic thinking of senior officials from across the Euro-Atlantic region. She also served on the Loisach Group, a senior German-American policy forum, and received the Defense Security Cooperation Agency Director’s Award for exceptional service. She has held visiting fellowships at Harvard University’s Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies and the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna and has served on European and transatlantic task forces producing policy recommendations on NATO, defense, and transatlantic cooperation. A sought-after voice on the international circuit, Dr. Zeneli is a regular lecturer at the NATO School in Oberammergau and at defense and diplomatic academies across Europe and the United States. She has served as Master of Ceremonies at high-level European Commission conferences and contributes commentary and analysis to The National Interest, The Diplomat, and Il Messaggero. She advises governments on national security strategy and consults with private sector clients on geopolitical risk. Her core areas of expertise span transatlantic relations, strategic competition and geo-economics, European integration, and the Western Balkans. Zeneli is the 2023 recipient of the Inspiration Award for Women.