Fredrik Wesslau

Fredrik Wesslau is a senior policy fellow in the European Security programme at the European Council of Foreign Relations.

He was the founding director of the European Policy Institute in Kyiv, 2025-2026, where he led the establishment of the institute and oversaw its build-up, strategic development, partnerships and policy engagement in Ukraine. He was also a  distinguished policy fellow at the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies, 2023-2026.

Wesslau has more than 25 years of experience working on international crises and armed conflicts. He has served with the UN, EU and OSCE, with field assignments in Kosovo, the South Caucasus, and Sudan and South Sudan. He was also country representative and team leader of an EU counter-piracy mission off the Horn of Africa. Until early 2023, he was based in Kyiv as deputy head of the EU Advisory Mission (EUAM) Ukraine, supporting reforms in the civilian security sector.

He has previously served as director of ECFR’s Wider Europe programme and worked for the International Herald Tribune. He has written for Foreign Policy, Politico, the New York Times, Newsweek, Kyiv Post, Dagens Industri and Svenska Dagbladet, and appeared on the BBC, France 24, SVT and TV4.

Wesslau has master’s degrees from Columbia University and Sciences Po Paris, and an undergraduate degree from the London School of Economics. He is the author of “The Political Adviser’s Handbook”.