BTI blog authors

To BTI blog

On the BTI blog, BTI experts and journalists provide insights into current democracy and governance issues in developing and transition countries.

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Abdullahi Murtala

HumAngle
Reporter
Abdullahi Murtala is an Assistant Editor with HumAngle, based in Nigeria. He heads the Armed violence and climate security desk. Murtala writes on trends associated with security and the impact of climate change in Nigeria and Lake Chad. 
  • humanglemedia.com/author/murtala/
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Alex Vatanka

Middle East Institute
Director Iran Program
Alex Vatanka is the director of the Iran program and a senior fellow at the Frontier Europe Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. His most recent book is "The Battle of the Ayatollahs in Iran: The United States, Foreign Policy and Political Rivalry Since 1979."
  • mei.edu/experts/alex-vatanka
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Alexander Heinrich

University of Gothenburg
Master Student
Alexander Heinrich is currently pursuing an M.Sc. in Political Science at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. For his master’s thesis, he is researching regimes that have managed to recover after a period of autocratization. His research focuses on the role of civil society.
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Ali Fathollah-Nejad

Political Analyst
Ali Fathollah-Nejad is a German-Iranian political scientist and analyst. He is a McCloy Fellow on Global Trends of the American Council on Germany and an Associate Fellow with the American University of Beirut's Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs. He contributes to the BTI as country expert.
  • fathollah-nejad.eu/
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Alison Singer

Michigan State University
PhD Candidate
Alison Singer is a freelance writer for environmental organizations such as the Worldwatch Institute and the Climate Institute. Currently, she is PhD candidate in Community Sustainability at Michigan State University.
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Amal S. Obeidi

University of Benghazi
Associate Professor
Amal Obeidi is associate professor of comparative politics at the University of Benghazi, Libya, and associate researcher at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. She is BTI country expert on Libya.
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Amine Ghali

Al Kawakibi Democracy Transition Center
Director
Amine Ghali is the Director of Al Kawakibi Democracy Transition Center (KADEM). He is working on issues of democracy, reform and transition in the Arab region.
  • kawakibi.org/
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Anaïs Marin

Independent Belarus Expert
Anaïs Marin (PhD, Sciences Po Paris) is an independent Belarus expert based in Warsaw. An associate fellow with the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House, since 2018 she also holds the pro bono mandate of UN Special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus.
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Anas El Gomati

Sadeq Institute
Founder and Director
Anas El Gomati is founder and director of the Sadeq Institute, Libya’s first independent public policy think tank, a former visiting fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Centre and former visiting lecturer at the NATO Defence college.
  • sadeqinstitute.org/
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Anietie Ewang

Human Rights Watch
Anietie Ewang is the Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch. Prior to joining the organization, she worked as a Senior Staff Attorney at the Social and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC) Nigeria. Anietie has also worked at the Initiative for Social Economic Rights (ISER), Uganda and the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Justice.
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Anna Gwiazda

King's College London
Lecturer
Dr. Anna Gwiazda is a lecturer in comparative politics in the Department of Political Economy at King's College London. Before joining King’s in September 2010, Anna worked at Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin. Her most book Democracy in Poland (London: Routledge, 2015) examines the quality of democracy in Poland from the collapse of communism in 1989 up to the 2011 parliamentary election. Anna Gwiazda is BTI country expert for Poland.
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Anna Hengge

Heidelberg University
Researcher
Anna Hengge is pursuing an MA in Political Science with a special focus on polarization and democratic backsliding. She is part of Professor Aurel Croissant‘s research team at the Institute of Political Science at Heidelberg University.
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Anna Jordanova

Association of International Affairs (AMO), Prague
Associate Fellow
Anna Jordanova is an Associate Fellow at the Association of International Affairs in Prague and a Ph.D. student at Charles University, Czechia. She focuses on the current developments in Central Asia, especially in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
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Annkatrin Christ

Bertelsmann Stiftung
Annkatrin is a graduate of RWTH Aachen University, where she studied Political Science with a focus on International Relations. She worked as an intern for the BTI in 2024 while writing her master's thesis on children's rights in post-conflict contexts. Her academic interests include peace and conflict studies, human rights and international law.
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Aurel Croissant

University of Heidelberg
Professor of Political Science
Aurel Croissant is Professor of Political Science at the Institute of Political Science, Ruprecht-Karls-University, Heidelberg. He is the BTI's regional coordinator for Asia and Oceania. His main research interests include the comparative analysis of political structures and processes in East- and Southeast Asia, the theoretical and empirical analysis of democracy, civil-military relations, terrorism and political violence.
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Awol Kassim Allo

Keele University
Senior Lecturer
Awol Allo is senior lecturer in Law at Keele University. Prior, he was fellow in human rights at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
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Bee Yun

Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul
Professor of Political Science
Bee Yun is a professor of political science at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, where he teaches political theory. From September 2023 to July 2024, Yun was a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin).
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Bente Scheller

Heinrich Böll Foundation
Head of Middle East and North Africa Division
Dr. Bente Scheller took over as Head of Middle East and North Africa Division at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in September 2019. From 2012 to 2019, she headed the foundation’s office in Beirut. Prior to that, starting in 2008, she led the office in Afghanistan and worked as a political advisor at the German Embassy in Damascus from 2002 to 2004. In 2013, her book "The Wisdom of Syria's Waiting Game: Foreign Policy Under the Assads" was published. She is a Marshall Memorial Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
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Bert Hoffmann

Lead Researcher, German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA)
and Professor of Political Science at Freie Universität Berlin
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Carolina Moehlecke

School of International Relations, Fundação Getulio Vargas
Adjunct Professor
Carolina Moehlecke is an adjunct professor at the School of International Relations at Fundação Getulio Vargas (Brazil) and a PhD candidate in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on the role of private businesses in the emergence and diffusion of international regulation in areas like environmental protection and public health.
  • ri.fgv.br/en/team/carolina-moehlecke
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Christian Achrainer

Independent Consultant, Analyst and Lecturer
Christian Achrainer is a PostDoc Researcher at Roskilde University (RUC), where he is involved in the Horizon Europe project SHAPEDEM-EU. He mainly researches on EU democracy support as well as human rights and authoritarianism in Egypt.
  • forskning.ruc.dk/en/persons/achrainer
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Christian Hanelt

Bertelsmann Stiftung
Senior Expert
Christian Hanelt is Senior Expert for Europe's Neighborhood and the Middle East. His areas of expertise include the Israeli-Arab conflict, the EU's relations with the Gulf States (GCC), political, social, and economic developments in the Arab world, and the causes of flight and migration.
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Christina Maags

School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Lecturer
Christina Maags is lecturer in Chinese politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Prior to joining SOAS, she completed a PhD in Political Science at the University of Frankfurt and studied in Oxford, Frankfurt and Bonn. Moreover, she has been a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.
  • soas.ac.uk/staff/staff123867.php
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Claire Elder

University of Oxford
Doctoral Candidate in Politics and International Relations
Claire Elder is a doctoral candidate in Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. She is also a consulting political analyst, having worked previously for International Crisis Group (ICG) on Somaliland/Somalia.
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Claudia Härterich

Transformation Index BTI
Project Manager
Claudia Härterich is Project Manager at the Bertelsmann Stiftung's Transformation Index (BTI).
  • bti-project.org
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Claudio Fuentes

Universidad Diego Portales
Professor
Claudio Fuentes, Ph.D. political science, is a professor at the School of Political Science at the Universidad Diego Portales (UDP) in Santiago de Chile. He is a coordinator of the UDP Constitutional Lab.
  • ocialesehistoria.udp.cl/?persona=claudio-fuentes-saavedra
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Cora Jungbluth

Bertelsmann Stiftung
Senior Expert
Dr. Cora Jungbluth is senior expert for international trade and investment in the Bertelsmann Stiftung's Europe program. She specializes in macroeconomic analyses on Asia with a focus on regional trade agreements, global value chains and international investment.
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Corina Murafa

Energy & Climate Policy Expert
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Craig Willy

Craig James Willy is a Brussels-based EU affairs writer.
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Dalia Ghanem

Carnegie Middle East Center
Resident Scholar
Dalia Ghanem is an Algerian resident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. Her work examines political and extremist violence, radicalization, Islamism, and jihadism with an emphasis on Algeria.
  • carnegie-mec.org/experts/904
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Damin Jung

The Korea Times
Politics & Defense Reporter
Damin Jung is politics and defense reporter at The Korea Times.
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Dandy Rafitrandi

Centre for Strategic and International Studies (Jakarta)
Researcher
Dandy Rafitrandi is a researcher at the Department of Economics, Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, Indonesia. His research agenda focuses on the intersection of international economics, digital economy, and ASEAN. Currently, he undertakes several projects related to trade agreements and international cooperation, and the digital economy ecosystem. He also served as a lecturer at Prasetiya Mulya University.
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Dane Taleski

Centre for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz
Visiting Fellow
Dane Taleski is Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz, where he focuses on the transformation of wartime networks into political parties in Western Balkan post-conflict countries and its impact on party competition, peacebuilding and democratization. Dane Taleski has served as executive director of two think tanks and was a member of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia’s executive board (2009–2013). He holds a PhD in political science from the Central European University in Budapest. He was a Civil Society Scholar with the Open Society Foundations (2014) and has been a member of the Transformation Thinkers network since 2005.
  • danetaleski.com
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Daniel Kapellmann

Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
Daniel Kapellmann is a Mexican Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst for FireEye and Consultant for ITU Digital Inclusion Division. As a former Fulbright scholar, he holds an Information Management master’s degree from the University of Washington specialized in Information Security & Risk Management.
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Daniela Arregui Coka

Bertelsmann Stiftung
Junior Project Manager
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Dariusz Kalan

Analyst
Dariusz Kalan is a Central Europe correspondent for international media and an analyst based in Bratislava.
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David Brenner

University of Sussex
Associate Professor
Dr David Brenner is Associate Professor in Global Insecurities in the Department of International Relations at the University of Sussex. David studied in Heidelberg, Beijing and London, earning his PhD from the London School of Economics. He has researched the armed conflict in Myanmar since 2012 and is author of Rebel Politics: A Political Sociology of Armed Struggle in Myanmar’s Borderlands, published with Cornell University Press in 2019. His recent publications on the topic include Misunderstanding Myanmar through the Lens of Democracy, published with International Affairs in 2024.
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David Kuehn

German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA)
Senior Research Fellow
Dr. David Kuehn is Senior Research Fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg, Germany. His research focuses on civil-military relations, democratization, and authoritarianism.
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Dragan Koprivica

Dragan Koprivica

Center for Democratic Transition
Executive Director
Dragan Koprivica is Executive director of Center for Democratic Transition (CDT), one of the most prominent good governance advocacy NGOs in Montenegro.
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Eduardo Mello

Fundação Getulio Vargas
Assistant Professor of Politics and International Relations
Eduardo Mello is assistant professor of politics and international relations at Fundação Getulio Vargas, Brazil. His research interests include governance, poverty reduction, the political economy of education, electoral clientelism, the provision of public goods, and political corruption. He received his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics.
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Elham Manea

University of Zuerich
Associate Professor
Elham Manea is associate professor for Political Science at the University of Zuerich. She works as a consultant for governmental and international organizations, for instance the World Bank, Freedom House or the United States Agency for International Development. She is BTI expert on Yemen.
  • elham-manea.com
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Emilia Arellano

GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies
Research Fellow
Emilia Arellano is a Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies. Her research focuses on the executive power, political institutions, and power relations. She is currently involved in a project that analyses the personalization of executive power in different political contexts. Emilia holds a law degree and a Master of Arts in Public Economics, Law and Politics, and has contributed to several research initiatives on governance and democracy in Latin America.
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Eromo Egbejule

Journalist
Eromo Egbejule is a Nigerian journalist. He has written for The Africa Report magazine, Reuters, The Guardian, Times of London, Financial Times, Al-Jazeera and other global media outlets.
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Eva Seiwert

Graduate School of East Asian Studies (GEAS), Freie Universität Berlin
Doctoral Candidate
Eva Seiwert is a doctoral candidate at the Graduate School of East Asian Studies (GEAS) at the Freie Universität Berlin. Her research focuses on China’s foreign policy towards Central Asia, in particular within the context of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
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Fabian Stroetges

Durham University
Doctoral Researcher
Fabian Stroetges is doctoral researcher at Durham University’s School of Government and International Affairs and BTI country expert for Tunisia.
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Falk Hartig

Goethe University Frankfurt
Postdoctoral Researcher and Journalist
Falk Hartig is a sinologist and journalist working on contemporary China. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Goethe University Frankfurt, analyzing China’s international affairs and non-cohesive means of global engagement.
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Filip Reyntjens

Institute of Development Policy, University of Antwerp
Emeritus Professor of Law and Politics
Filip Reyntjens is professor emeritus of Law and Politics at the Institute of Development Policy, University of Antwerp. His research and work focuses on the Great Lakes region of Africa.
  • filipreyntjens.jimdofree.com/
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Fredrick Nzwili

Journalist
Nzwili is a journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya. He frequently writes about peace, conflict, religion, culture and ethics, as well as environmental and climate issues in Africa. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature and Sociology and a postgraduate diploma in Mass Communication from the University of Nairobi.
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Gabriel Salvia

Center for the Opening and the Development of Latin America (CADAL)
Chairman
Gabriel C. Salvia is Chairman of the Center for the Opening and the Development of Latin America (CADAL). He has also worked as a journalist and human rights activist since 1992. CADAL (www.cadal.org) is one of the leading reform-oriented think tanks in Argentina. It is a non-profit, non-partisan, private foundation with the mission of promoting democratic values, and Spanish publisher of the BTI in Spanish.
  • cadal.org
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Photo of the author

Gianluca Grimalda

Institute for the World Economy Kiel
Senior Researcher
Gianluca Grimalda is senior researcher at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and member of the steering committee of the International Panel on Social Progress.
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Giorgi Kldiashvili

Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI)
Founding Member and Executive Director
Giorgi Kldiashvili is a founding member and Executive Director of the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI). He has more than 10 years experience of working on openness and anti-corruption policies in Georgia and internationally. Giorgi has been carrying out projects, studies, assessments and providing trainings for different international and civil society organizations and government entities. He is the author of a number of publications related to access to information, anticorruption policy and good governance, accountability and transparency, e-Governance and e-Democracy, open data, civil service and public administration, media and internet.
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Hakan Demir

MiGAZIN, Journal for Migration and Integration in Germany
Editor-in-Chief
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Hameed Hakimi

Atlantic Council
Senior Fellow
Hameed Hakimi is Associate Fellow at Chatham House and Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council.
  • atlanticcouncil.org/expert/hameed-hakimi/
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Hannah Kickert

Bertelsmann Stiftung and Sciences Po Paris
BTI Intern and MA Student
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Hans-Joachim Spanger

Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF)
Associate Fellow
Hans-Joachim Spanger is a research associate at PRIF - Leibniz Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies in Frankfurt/Main and BTI Regional Coordinator for Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia.
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Héctor Briceño

Central University of Venezuela
Reseacher
Héctor Briceño is a researcher at the Center for Development Studies of the Central University of Venezuela (Cendes-UCV) and guest researcher at the University of Rostock. He holds a PhD in Political Science. His topics of interest are democracy, political parties and elections.
  • posmonicionpolitica.com
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Hossam Sadek

University of Vienna
PhD Candidate
Hossam Sadek has studied political science at the University of Vienna, where he is currently active as PhD candidate in the same field. He has extensive experience in Middle Eastern affairs and worked in journalism in the region for 13 years.
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Iryna Solonenko

European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder
Researcher
Iryna Solonenko is researcher at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder and associate fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). She is BTI country expert on Ukraine.
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Jake Benford

Bertelsmann Stiftung
Senior Project Manager
Jake Benford is a member of Bertelsmann Stiftung's Europe Programme, where he currently focusses on economic cohesion in the EU as well as more broadly on relations with the UK.
  • globaleurope.eu/blogger/jake-benford/
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Jan Claudius Völkel

Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI)
Regional Coordinator
Jan Claudius Völkel is BTI regional coordinator for the Middle East & North Africa and and DAAD Seconded Professor at the University of Ottawa.
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Jan Hofmeyr

Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR)
Head of Policy and Research
Jan Hofmeyr heads the Research and Policy Programme at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) in Cape Town. Opinions expressed here are his own and not that of the Institute.
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Jennifer M. Piscopo

Royal Holloway University of London
Professor of Gender and Politics
Jennifer M. Piscopo is Professor of Gender and Politics at Royal Holloway University of London. She is also Associate Professor of Politics and Director of the Center for Research and Scholarship at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA. Her research focuses on women’s political representation and gender and elections in Latin America, the United States, and the globe. She has published in over 30 peer-reviewed journals, her public writing commenting on U.S. politic, Latin American politics, and gender and politics has appeared in media outlets across the globe.
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Jens Poggenpohl

Freelance Journalist
  • jenspoggenpohl.de
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Jess Smee

Journalist
Jess Smee is a Berlin-based journalist who writes for The Guardian newspaper among others. She is contributor and editor for the Bertelsmann Stiftung's SGI News and BTI Blog.

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Jil Kamerling

Heidelberg University
Researcher
Jil Kamerling is researcher at the Institute of Political Science at Heidelberg University with a primary interest in institutions in autocracies, diffusion and authoritarian learning. Together with Tanja Eschenauer-Engler and Prof. Aurel Croissant, Jil co-created the The Political Roles of the Military (PRM) dataset (http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/politikwissenschaften/personal/croissant/forschung_en.html).
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Jonathan Fisher

University of Birmingham
Reader
Jonathan Fisher is reader in African Politics at the University of Birmingham and visiting fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) at Stellenbosch University. He studied at University College London and the University of Oxford and has worked in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda. His research - which has been funded by the AHRC, British Academy, ESRC and Facebook, among others - focuses on the nature and characteristics of authoritarian states in Africa.
  • birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/gov/fisher-jonathan.aspx
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Jos Boonstra

FRIDE
Head of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia Program
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Julia Renner-Mugono

University of Münster
Researcher
Dr. Julia Renner-Mugono is postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Münster. Her research interests include resource conflicts, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and global dynamics of resource distribution. She is BTI regional coordinator for Eastern and Southern Africa. She is associate fellow at the Peace Academy Rhineland-Palatinate and member of the Peace and Conflict Research Association (AfK).
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Julian Dierkes

Institute of Asian Research of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver
Associate Professor
Dr. Julian Dierkes is an associate professor at the Institute of Asian Research of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. His research focuses on the political development and mining policy in Mongolia. Dierkes is one of 246 country experts who worked on the latest edition of the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index, BTI 2016. He blogs at http://blogs.ubc.ca.mongolia. 
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Juliane Matthey

Reporters Without Borders
Press Officer
Juliane Matthey is press officer at Reporters Without Borders.
  • reporter-ohne-grenzen.de
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Karola Klatt

Journalist
Karola Klatt is a science journalist and an editor for the Bertelsmann Stiftung's SGI News and BTI Blog.
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Konstantin Krome

Heidelberg University
Researcher
Konstantin Krome pursues an MA in Political Science, focusing in area studies of the Middle East. He is part of Professor Aurel Croissant's research team at Heidelberg University.
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Leonid Litra

New Europe Center Kyiv
Senior Research Fellow
Leonid Litra is Senior Research Fellow at the think tank New Europe Center in Kyiv, Ukraine, and BTI expert on Moldova. He previously worked for various think tanks in Kyiv and Chisinau and published on topics related to the post-Soviet area, European integration and frozen conflicts.
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Lloyd M. Sachikonye

Institute of Development Studies
Professor
Lloyd M. Sachikonye is Professor at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Zimbabwe, where he researches employment policy, democratization and governance. Sachikonye has advised the African Union, the International Labour Organization (2007–2009) and the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (2011–2012). He serves on the editorial boards of nine international journals, including Africa Development and the Review of African Political Economy. Lloyd holds a PhD in political science from the University of Leeds and has been a member of the Transformation Thinkers network since 2005.
  • uz.ac.zw/index.php/2013-07-26-07-20-53/ids
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Ludwig Schulz

German Orient Institute
Ludwig Schulz is head of the Turkey department of the German Orient Institute Berlin and project manager at the Center for Applied Policy Research (C.A.P.) Munich.
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Maja Bovcon

Verisk Maplecroft
Senior Analyst
Maja Bovcon is senior analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a global risk analytics and strategic consulting firm based in UK. Her research focusses on the political, economic, social and security situation in West African countries. She holds a PhD in politics and international relations from the University of Oxford.
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Manuela Andreoni

Journalist
Manuela Andreoni is a journalist from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She has worked for newspapers, magazines and television programms in Brazil and abroad, such as The Sunday Times, The Globe and Mail, O Globo, Agência Pública, BBC Panorama. She currently is a reporter at Columbia Journalism Investigations.
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Marco Bünte

Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Professor
Marco Bünte is Professor of Asian Politics and Society at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. He is one of 250 country experts contributing to the Bertelsmann Stiftung's Transformation Index (BTI).
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Marco Bünte

Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Professor
Marco Bünte is Professor of Asian Politics and Society at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. He is one of 250 country experts that contribute to the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index (BTI).
  • pol.phil.fau.de/person/marco-buente/
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Mariana Llanos

University of Erfurt, German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA)
Professor
Mariana Llanos holds the joint professorship for “Democratic Institutions in the Global South” between the University of Erfurt and the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA).
  • giga-hamburg.de/en/the-giga/team/llanos-mariana
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Marina Vulović

German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)
Research Associate
Marina Vulović (PhD) is an associate in the project "Geostrategic Competition for the EU in the Western Balkans" at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).
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Mark Turner

University of New South Wales
Visiting Professor
Mark Turner is a visiting professor at the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra. He is one of 250 country experts who are currently working on the forthcoming edition of the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index BTI 2016 which will be released at the end of February 2016.
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Markus Karbaum

Dr. Karbaum Consulting & Coaching
Managing Director
Dr. Markus Karbaum studied political science and has been working as an independent consultant since 2010, focusing on Cambodia and Southeast Asia.
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Martin Plaut

Institute of Commonwealth Studies
Journalist and Senior Research Fellow
Martin Plaut is a freelance journalist and senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies focusing on the Horn of Africa and Southern Africa. He is the former Africa editor of BBC World Service News.
  • martinplaut.wordpress.com/
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Marzia Raza

Heidelberg University
Doctoral Researcher
Marzia Raza is a doctoral researcher in Political Science at Heidelberg University.
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Mat Youkee

Journalist
Mat Youkee is a freelance journalist and a political analyst covering Latin America from Bogotá, Colombia.
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Michael Brüntrup

German Institute of Development and Sustainability
Senior Researcher
Michael Brüntrup is a Senior Researcher at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability.
  • idos-research.de/michael-bruentrup/
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Michael Gahler

European Parliament
Member
Michael Gahler has been a Member of the European Parliament of the German CDU in the European People's Party since 1999 and is Vice President of the European Movement Germany. He is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and security policy spokesman for the EPP Group in the European Parliament.
  • europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/2341/MICHAEL_GAHLER_home.html
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Mikayel Zolyan

Regional Studies Center, Yerevan
Political Analyst
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Miriam Kosmehl

Bertelsmann Stiftung
Senior Expert
Miriam Kosmehl has been Senior Expert in the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Europe’s Future Program since 2017 working on the Eastern Partnership region from Berlin.
  • globaleurope.eu/blogger/miriam-kosmehl-ll-m/
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Muhammad Salman

Heidelberg University
Guest Researcher
Muhammad Salman holds a Ph.D. In Political Science and is currently associated with the Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University as a Guest Researcher.
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Nic Cheeseman

University of Birmingham
Professor of Democracy and International Development
Nic Cheeseman is Professor of Democracy at the University of Birmingham. He mainly works on democracy, elections and development and has published research on Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Professor Cheeseman is the author or editor of more than ten books, including Democracy in Africa (2015), Institutions and Democracy in Africa (2017), How to Rig an Election (2018), Coalitional Presidentialism in Comparative Perspective (2018), Authoritarian Africa (2020) and most recently The Moral Economy of Elections in Africa (2020).
  • democracyinafrica.org/
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Nick Ross

Australian National University
Researcher, PhD Student
Nick Ross is a PhD student at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University. He works as researcher for the Association for Inclusive Peace, and has consulted with or advised the United Nations, national governments, civil society, and non-state armed groups in Myanmar, Afghanistan, Kenya and Colombia.
  • c.bellschool.anu.edu.au/experts-publications/experts/nick-ross
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Nicole Beardsworth

Lecturer in Politics, University of the Witwatersrand
Honorary Research Fellow, University of Warwick
Nicole Beardsworth is a lecturer in politics at the University of the Witwatersrand and an honorary research fellow at the University of Warwick. Nicole holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Warwick, an MA in International Relations from the University of the Witwatersrand and an MSc in African Studies from the University of Oxford. Her PhD research focused on opposition parties and electoral coordination in Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Her broader research is on the history and politics of sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on political parties, governance, democratization and elections in Southern and Eastern Africa. Nicole is a regular writer for several academic blogs and newspapers, and a contributor to the BTI.
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Noory Okthariza

Centre for Strategic and International Studies (Jakarta)
Researcher
Noory Okthariza is researcher at the Department of Politics and Social Change, Centre for Strategic and International Studies Indonesia. He is an adjunct lecturer at the Department of Political Science, UPN Veteran Jakarta. He specializes on party politics, election, and political Islam in Indonesia.
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O’Brien Kaaba

Lecturer, University of Zambia
Senior Research Fellow, Southern African Institute for Policy and Research (SAIPAR)
Dr. O’Brien Kaaba, is a lecturer in law at the University of Zambia and a senior research fellow at the Southern African Institute for Policy and Research (SAIPAR). He has formerly served as elections manager for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) in Zambia, political specialist for the US Department of State at the American Embassy in Lusaka (Zambia) and as a human rights and rule of law advisor for the German development cooperation agency GIZ in Zambia. O’Brien is a co-editor of the book Democracy and Electoral Politics in Zambia published in 2020.
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Pablo Nemiña

Latin American Social Sciences Institute (FLACSO - Argentina)
Research Fellow
Pablo Nemiña is research fellow at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council, the International Relations Department at the Latin American Social Sciences Institute (FLACSO - Argentina) and the National University of San Martín, where he teaches and researches about political economy of international finance.
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Patrick Ziegenhain

President University, Cikarang/Indonesia
Associate Professor
Patrick Ziegenhain is an Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations at President University, Cikarang/Indonesia. His main areas of research are economic, political and social developments in Southeast Asia and Europe as well as International Relations in both regions.
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Paul Esber

El Colegio de México
Visiting Researcher
Paul Esber is a Middle East analyst and visiting researcher at El Colegio de México.
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Pavel Havlíček

AMO Research Center
Research Fellow
Pavel Havlíček is Research Fellow at the Association for International Affairs (AMO) Research Center in Prague. His research focuses on Eastern Europe, especially Ukraine and Russia, and the Eastern Partnership. He also deals with questions of strategic communication and disinformation as well as democratization and civil society support.
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Pavin Chachavalpongpun

Kyoto University
Associate Professor
Pavin Chachavalpongpun is associate professor at Kyoto University’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies.
  • en.kyoto.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/about/staff-page/chachavalpongpun-pavin/
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Peter Birle

Peter Birle

Ibero-American Institute
Research Director
Peter Birle is director of the research division and the research and publications department of the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin. He is BTI country expert on Brazil.
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Peter Thiery

University of Heidelberg
Senior Research Fellow
Dr. Peter Thiery is senior researcher at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Heidelberg. His research focuses on democracy, the rule of law and transformation processes in Latin America. Since 2002, he has contributed to the development of the BTI and his the BTI's regional coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean. He also participated in several research projects at Universities of Munich and Würzburg, and was fellow at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg.
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Piotr Buras

European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)
Director, Warsaw Office
Piotr Buras heads the Warsaw office of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). He is a journalist, author and expert in German and European politics and has worked as a columnist and Berlin correspondent for “Gazeta Wyborcza”, the biggest Polish daily.
  • ecfr.eu/profile/C236
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Rabi Karmacharya

Open Learning Exchange (OLE) Nepal
Executive Director
Rabi Karmacharya is a social entrepreneur with over 18 years of experience in the private and development sectors. He established one of Nepal’s first successful software-outsourcing companies. He went on to found Open Learning Exchange (OLE) Nepal with the aim of giving all children access to high-quality learning opportunities through the use of technology in classrooms.  Rabi holds electrical-engineering and computer-science degrees from MIT, and has been a member of the Transformation Thinkers network since 2012.
  • olenepal.org/team/
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Rachel Kleinfeld

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace │ Democracy, Conflict, and Governance program
Senior Fellow
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Raffaella Ravinetto

Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp
Senior Researcher and Policy Advisor
Raffaella Ravinetto is a senior researcher and policy advisor at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp, Belgium. Currently, she is in charge of a portfolio of research, policy support, networking and advocacy on medicines in low- and middle-income countries, and of a North-South network on research standards and ethics in low- and middle-income countries at ITM's Public Health Department.
  • research.itg.be/en/persons/raffaella-ravinetto
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Raphael Bossong

German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)
Senior Associate
Raphael Bossong is senior associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin. He focuses on internal security affairs, border security and the impact of the migration crisis on the EU.
  • swp-berlin.org/wissenschaftler-detail/raphael-bossong/
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Rasheed Draman

African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs
Executive Director
Rasheed Draman is Executive Director of the African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA) in Accra. He has been focusing on governance and institutional issues for the past 15 years and has worked with more than 30 parliaments and governments in Africa. He has served as the Director of Africa Programmes at the Parliamentary Centre (2006–2013) and as a consultant for the Africa Branch and the Multilateral Programs Branch of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). He holds a PhD in Political Science from Carleton University, Ottawa and has been a member of the Transformation Thinkers network since 2005.
  • acepa-africa.org
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Richard J. Heydarian

Academic, author, policy adviser
Richard Javad Heydarian is an Asia-based academic, author and policy adviser. As a columnist, he has written for the world’s leading publications, including The New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, Foreign Affairs. He is an Associate Professor at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, and has delivered lectures at the world’s leading universities, including Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, and Leiden University. His latest books are “The Rise of Duterte: A Populist Revolt against Elite Democracy” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) and “The Indo-Pacific: Trump, China, and the New Global Struggle for Mastery” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). His forthcoming book is “Confronting China” (Melbourne University Press).
  • richardheydarian.ph
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Richard R. Dion

Governance and Communications Consultant
Richard R. Dion is a governance and communications consultant based in Germany. Formerly a regional director at the EITI International Secretariat, he has evaluated the EITI in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea for the GIZ.
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Robert Schwarz

Bertelsmann Transformation Index
Senior Project Manager
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Rolf J. Langhammer

Kiel Institute for the World Economy
Senior Fellow
Rolf J. Langhammer is Senior Fellow at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and Senior Policy Fellow for China in the Global Economy at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS). He is member of the BTI Board, an interdisciplinary group of transformation and development experts.
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Roma Rajpal Weiss

Freelance journalist
Roma Rajpal Weiß is a freelance journalist and blogger from India, currently based in Bonn, Germany. She writes for the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s SGI News and BTI Blog.
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Sabine Donner

Transformation Index BTI
Senior Expert
Sabine Donner is Senior Expert at the Bertelsmann Stiftung and directs the BTI project “Shaping Change – Strategies of Development and Transformation”.
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Sally Broughtom Micova

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Fellow in Media Governance and Policy
Sally Broughtom Micova is LSE Fellow in Media Governance and Policy and Deputy Director of the LSE Media Policy Project in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she completed her PhD in December 2013. Before entering academia she was head of Media Development and Spokesperson for the OSCE Mission to Skopje for several years.
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Sandra Weiss

Journalist
Sandra Weiss is a political scientist and former diplomat. Since 1998 she has been reporting from Latin America as a correspondent for German and international media. She currently lives in Mexico.
  • anweiss.wixsite.com/latamreporter
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Sara Meyer

Unaffiliated
Freelance Journalist
Sara Meyer lives and works as a freelance journalist in Bogotá, Colombia. She studied Law, International Relations and Latin American Studies in Germany, Greece and Colombia.
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Sean Carey

School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester
Honorary Senior Research Fellow
Sean Carey is honorary senior research fellow in the School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester and fellow of the Young Foundation. He has written on Mauritius for The Guardian, The Independent, New African and African Business.
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Sebastian Plate

Transformation Index BTI
Project Manager
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Seda Gürkan

Leiden University
Assistant Professor
Seda Gürkan works as Assistant Professor in European Approaches to Security, Diplomacy and Global Affairs at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA), Leiden University. She is a country expert for Turkey at the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI).
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Serhat Ünaldi

Bertelsmann Stiftung
Project Manager
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Shamil Shams

Journalist
Shamil Shams works as a reporter and editor for Deutsche Welle in Bonn, Germany.
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Sharinee L. Jagtiani

Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering, University of Potsdam
Postdoctoral Fellow
Sharinee L. Jagtiani is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) for Digital Engineering, University of Potsdam. She is also an Associate at the Institute for Asian Studies, German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA). She holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Oxford and has published on Indian foreign policy, Indo-Pacific security, technology policy, and the international relations of the Global South.
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Sophia Boddenberg

Freelance Journalist
Sophia Boddenberg studied journalism and social and political sciences in Latin America. As a freelance journalist she reports from Latin American countries, covering politics, women’s rights, indigenous populations and environmental conflicts.
  • sophiaboddenberg.com
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Stanley Azuakola

Civic Monitor
Executive Director
Stanley Azuakola is founder and executive director of Civic Monitor, a Nigerian non-profit that works to facilitate a more engaged and informed citizenry in Africa.
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Stefan Ehlert

Journalist
Stefan Ehlert is from Gütersloh in East Westphalia in Germany. With his family, the historian and journalist lives as a freelance Africa correspondent in Maputo, Mozambique. He works for the epd, Deutschlandfunk, ARD radio and the Schwäbische Zeitung, among others. From 2001 to 2007 he reported on East and Central Africa from Nairobi. Since 2008, he has also reported on North and West Africa for the ARD radio studio Rabat. After a radio traineeship in Hamburg, he was a reporter and editor of the "Berliner Zeitung" in the late 1990s. Ehlert authored the biography "Wangari Maathai - Mother of the Trees. Africa's first Nobel Peace Prize winner".
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Stephan Giersdorf

University of Heidelberg
Research Fellow
Dr. Stephan Giersdorf is a research fellow at the University of Heidelberg. His research interests include democratization studies, authoritarian regimes, civil society studies and quantitative conflict research. His regional focus is on South and South East Asia.
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Susanne Schultz

Bertelsmann Stiftung
Project Manager
Susanne Schultz is project manager in the "Making Fair Migration a Reality" project at the Bertelsmann Stiftung. She holds a PhD in Migration and West Africa and is an Associated Research Fellow at the Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development (COMCAD).

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Sylvia Croese

University of Cape Town
Research Fellow
Sylvia Croese is a research fellow at the African Centre for Cities and at the Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town. She conducts research on urban governance and development in Africa. In addition, she is also a contributor to www.urbanafrica.net
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Szabolcs Panyi

Direkt 36
Journalist
Szabolcs Panyi is a journalist at Direkt36, a non-profit investigative journalism center in Budapest, Hungary. He covers corruption and national security related stories with a focus on Russian and Chinese influence in Central Eastern Europe. He received the Soma Award for the best Hungarian investigative journalism in 2015 and 2016, the Quality Journalism Award in 2017, and was shortlisted for the European Press Prize in 2018.
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Tamás Matura

Corvinus University Budapest
Associate Professor
Dr. Tamás Matura is an Associate Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest, where he specializes in Chinese foreign policy, EU-China relations, and Sino-Hungarian affairs. He is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington D.C., contributing to its Democratic Resilience program.
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Tamirace Fakhoury

Lebanese American University in Beirut
Assistant Professor
Tamirace Fakhoury is an assistant professor of political science at the Lebanese American University in Beirut and currently a Humboldt fellow at the GIGA Institute of Middle East Studies in Hamburg, Germany. Her latest article in Current History, “Lebanon’s Perilous Balancing Act”, discusses the country’s governance dilemmas in the wake of the Syrian conflict. Tamirace Fakhoury is one of 250 country experts of the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI) 2016.
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Tanja Eschenauer-Engler

Heidelberg University
Researcher
Tanja Eschenauer-Engler is a researcher at the Institute of Political Science at Heidelberg University. Her work focuses on civil-military relations, armed forces in autocracies, and military coups. From 2015 to 2019, she worked in the „Dictator's Endgame“ project. Together with Jil Kamerling and Prof. Aurel Croissant, she co-created the The Political Roles of the Military (PRM) dataset.
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Ted Piccone

Ted Piccone

World Justice Project (WJP)
Chief Engagement Officer
Ted Piccone is Chief Engagement Officer at the World Justice Project (WJP) and member of the BTI's Advisory Board.
  • "worldjusticeproject.org/"
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Thomas de Waal

Carnegie Europe
Senior Fellow
Thomas de Waal is a senior fellow with Carnegie Europe based in London. He is the author of several books on the Caucasus, including “The Caucasus: An Introduction” and “Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War.”
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Thomas Kalinowski

Ewha Womans University
Associate Professor
Thomas Kalinowski is associate professor at Ewha Womans University’s Graduate School of International Studies in Seoul and a long-time BTI expert of South Korean society, economy and corruption.
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Thomas Rausch

Bertelsmann Stiftung
Senior Project Manager
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Tilman Lüdke

Arnold-Bergstraesser Institute (ABI)
Senior Researcher
Tilman Lüdke is Senior Researcher at the Arnold-Bergstraesser Institute (ABI) and a BTI country expert on Turkey. His main research interests are the relations between Germany and the Middle East in historical perspective, political Islam, nationalism in the Middle East and the history of the Cyprus Conflict.
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Tobias Scholz

King's College London and National University of Singapore
Doctoral Candidate
Tobias Scholz is a doctoral candidate at King’s College London and the National University of Singapore, where he is completing a dissertation on continuity and change in India’s foreign and security policy and India’s global role. He is also a non-resident fellow with the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin.
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Tsedale Lemma

Addis Standard
Editor-in-Chief
Tsedale Lemma is founder and editor-in-chief of the Addis Standard, an English publication that reports critically on domestic and foreign sociopolitical and socioeconomic current affairs impacting Ethiopia.
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Una Bergmane

Foreign Policy Research Institute
Baltic Sea Fellow
Una Bergmane is Baltic Sea fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia and a postdoctoral researcher at Helsinki University. She holds a PhD from Sciences Po Paris. In the past, she was a Fox International Fellow at Yale University, a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University and a teaching fellow at the London School of Economics. Her main research interest includes the collapse of the Soviet Union as well as the post-Cold War international dynamics in the Baltic Sea region.
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Ved Pant

Harvard International Relations Council
Member of the Harvard International Relations Council and author at the Harvard International Review.
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Viera Žúborová

CORRECTIV
Development Manager
Viera Žúborová is a political scientist. In her work she focuses on the themes of populism, extremism, social movements, civil society, political communication and hate speech. In the past, she was a senior research fellow at the Center for European and North Atlantic Affairs (CENAA) in Bratislava and a scholar-in-residence at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) at Oxford University. Currently, she works as a development manager at the investigative newsroom CORRECTIV, where she is implementing an exile media project called Radio Sakharov.
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Vít Dostál

Association for International Affairs (AMO)
Executive Director
Vít Dostál is the Executive Director of AMO. He focuses on Czech foreign and European policy, Central European cooperation, and Polish foreign and domestic policy.
  • amo.cz/en/autor/vit-dostal-2/
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Viviana García Pinzón

Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institute (ABI) Freiburg and Institute for Latin American Studies at GIGA
Senior Researcher and Associate
Viviana García Pinzón is Senior Researcher at the Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institute (ABI) in Freiburg and Associate at the Institute for Latin American Studies at GIGA. She holds a PhD in Political Science, with a focus on peace and conflict studies, from the Philipps University of Marburg and was part of the GIGA Doctoral Programme. Her research focuses on conflict and violence, local governance, peace and security with emphasis on cities and borderlands and a regional focus on Latin America. Her research was awarded the Christiane-Rajewsky Prize by the German Association for Peace and Conflict Studies (AFK) in 2023 and the ADLAF-Prize (first place) by the German Association for Research on Latin America (ADLAF) in 2024.
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Yannik John

Transformation Index BTI
Project Manager
Yannik was part of the BTI team from 2022 to 2023. He studied political science and history at the University of Mainz and Madrid. Over the course of his master's degree, Yannik specialized in international relations and public economics. The question of how transformation processes towards democracy and an inclusive market economy can be achieved in a sustainable way is one of the driving forces behind his work.
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