Experts & Staff

Anna Kuchenbecker

Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships

Areas of expertise

Transatlantic Relations, Russia

Languages

German, English, Russian

Biography

Anna Kuchenbecker is the senior director for strategic partnerships at the European Council on Foreign Relations based in the Berlin office where she oversees ECFR’s strategic partnership and development operations.

Kuchenbecker came to ECFR from the Aspen Institute Germany, where she had served as the institute’s deputy director. Prior to that, she spent more than thirteen years in Washington, DC, holding various executive positions in the nonprofit sector and higher education. She was a Senior Partnership Adviser at the Institute for Inclusive Security, a foundation promoting the participation of women in peace processes. Moreover, she worked for Washington’s local NPR station, the Brookings Institution, George Washington Law School, American University’s Career Center, and Brucerius Law School, establishing its Washington Office.

Kuchenbecker started her career as an assistant professor with the history department of Hamburg University, where she worked until she moved to the US in early 2002. She holds a PhD in History and a Master of Arts in History and Slavic Languages. In addition, she is a deputy chair at Women in International Security Germany and a trustee of Berlin’s English speaking radio station, KCRW Berlin. She also serves as global ambassador for SameSky, a nonprofit organization empowering women genocide survivors in Rwanda.

The geopolitical tightrope: Balancing Georgia’s EU candidacy

Georgia’s path to EU membership is a strategic dilemma for the bloc: reward a country for democratic backsliding or leave it vulnerable to further Russian influence. To avoid shattering the hopes of a pro-EU population, a middle ground is needed

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