CEPA’s International Leadership Council (ILC) is a high-level group of global thought leaders and decision-makers who share CEPA’s core mission of strengthening the transatlantic alliance and advise on CEPA’s strategic vision.
Co-Chair
General (Ret.) H.R. McMaster, Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University; Lieutenant General (Ret.), United States Army; US National Security Advisor (2017-2018)
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Minister of Defence, Federal Republic of Germany (2019-2021)
Members
General (Ret.) John Allen, Strategic Advisor, Microsoft; Four-Star General (Ret.), United States Marine Corps; Commander, NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and US Forces in Afghanistan (2011-2013); Special Presidential Envoy, Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State (2014-2015)
Kiana Aran, Associate Professor, Bioengineering, Jacobs School of Engineering, UC San Diego; Co-Director, Center for Technologies for Healthy Aging
Karan Bhatia, Global Head, Government Affairs and Public Policy, Google; US Deputy Trade Representative (2005-2007)
Stephen Biegun, Deputy Secretary of State, US Department of State (2019-2021); Visiting Policy Practitioner, Weiser Diplomacy Center, University of Michigan
Carl Bildt, Prime Minister, Kingdom of Sweden (1991-1994); Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Sweden (2006-2014); Special Envoy for the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, World Health Organization
General (Ret.) Wesley Clark, Commander, US European Command (1997-2000); Supreme Allied Commander of Europe, NATO (1997-2000)
Francis Fukuyama, Political Scientist; Author of “The End of History and the Last Man”; Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
Timothy Garton Ash, Historian; Political Author; Professor of European Studies, Oxford University
William Hurd, US Representative (TX-23), US House of Representatives (2015-2021)
Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President, Republic of Estonia (2006-2016); Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Estonia (1996-1998, 1999-2002); Member of the European Parliament (2004-2006)
Kathleen Hicks, Deputy Secretary of Defense, United States Department of Defense (2021–2025)
Boris Johnson, Prime Minister, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (2019-2022)
Matthew Kaminski, Editor-at-Large, POLITICO
David J. Kramer, Executive Director, The George W. Bush Institute; US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (2008-2009)
Ivan Krastev, Political Scientist; Author; Chair, Centre for Liberal Strategies
Linas Linkevičius, Lithuanian Ambassador to Sweden, Republic of Lithuania; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Lithuania (2012-2020); Minister of National Defence, Republic of Lithuania (1993-1996, 2000-2004)
Jan Lipavský, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Czech Republic (2021–2024); Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Parliament of the Czech Republic (2017–2021; 2024– ); author of the Czech Magnitsky Act; former Vice-Chair of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committees
Anja Manuel, Executive Director, Aspen Strategy Group and Aspen Security Forum; Co-Founder and Partner, Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC
Zhanna Nemtsova, Co-Founder, Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom
Ambassador Robert C. O’Brien, US National Security Advisor (2019–2021), Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, United States Department of State (2018–2019)
General (Ret.) Daniel Petrescu, Chief of the Defence Staff, Romanian Ministry of Defence (2019-2023)
Ine Eriksen Søreide, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Norway (2017-2021); Minister of National Defense, Kingdom of Norway (2013-2017); Member of Parliament, Kingdom of Norway
General (Ret.) Stephen Twitty, Deputy Commander, US European Command (2018-2020); Founder, Twitty and Associates LLC
Eckart von Klaeden, Vice President and Head of External Affairs, Mercedes-Benz Group AG; Member of Parliament, Federal Republic of Germany (1994-2013)
Andriy Zagorodnyuk, Minister of Defence, Ukraine (2019-2020); Co-founder and Chairman, Centre for Defence Strategies
ILC members serve in a voluntary and advisory capacity and do not have a role in institutional governance, which is the purview of CEPA’s Board of Directors.
