ACONA Bootcamp and Conference Speakers
The ACONA program includes speakers who are experts in the fields of history, regional studies, international affairs, negotiation, diplomacy, national security and nuclear issues. Scholars and practitioners give lectures and participate in discussions with the ACONA Fellows. Below you can find a list of past speakers at the ACONA bootcamps and conferences since 2020.
Ray Acheson
Director of Reaching Critical Will at the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
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Rabia Akhtar
Director, Centre for Security, Strategy and Policy Research, University of Lahore; Non-resident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council, Washington DC
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Nobumasa Akiyama
Professor of International Relations, School of International and Public Policy and the Graduate School of Law at Hitotsubashi University
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William Alberque
Director of the Strategy, Technology, and Arms Control Programme,
International Institute for Strategic Studies in Berlin
Michael Albertson
Deputy Director, Center for Global Security Research (CGSR), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Former Senior Policy Advisor, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), Office of Nuclear and Missile Defense Policy
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Anatoly I. Antonov
Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States
Alexei Arbatov
Head of the Center for International Security, Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations
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Thóra Arnórsdóttir
Managing editor, Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (RÚV)
Catherine Ashton
Former High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Eileen Babbitt
Professor, Practice of International Conflict Management, The Fletcher School, Tufts University, Co-Director, Program on Human Rights and Conflict Resolution, The Fletcher School, Tufts University, Faculty Associate, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School
Andrey Baklitskiy
Senior Research Fellow, Center for Euro-Atlantic Security at the Institute of International Studies, MGIMO University
Senior Researcher, WMD Programme, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research
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Andrey Baykov
Associate Professor, Department of Applied International Analysis, MGIMO University
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Arvid Bell
Lecturer on Government at Harvard University; Director of the Negotiation Task Force (NTF) at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies
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Jón Atli Benediktsson
Rector, University of Iceland
Sarah Bidgood
Director, Eurasia Nonproliferation Program, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies
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Alexander Bollfrass
Senior Researcher, Center for Security Studies, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Associate, Negotiation Task Force, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies
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Mariana Budjeryn
Research Associate, Project on Managing the Atom (MTA) and the International Security Program (ISP) at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center
Matthew Bunn
Professor of the Practice of Energy, National Security, and Foreign Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government
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Lu Chuanying
Senior Fellow, Director of Research Center for Global Cyberspace Governance, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies
Susan Corke
Senior Fellow and Director of the bipartisan Transatlantic Democracy Working Group (TDWG) with The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF)
Thomas Countryman
Chair, Arms Control Association Board of Directors, Former U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security
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Tarja Cronberg
Distinguished Associate Fellow, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Former Member of European Parliament
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Christopher Daase
Professor for International Organization at the University of Frankfurt; Deputy Director of the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt
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Nikita Degtyarev
ACONA Fellow '23, Research Consultant, Open Nuclear Network (ONN)
Abdolrasool Divsallar
Co-leader of the Regional Security Initiative at the Middle East Directions Programme of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies; Policy Leader Fellow at the School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute
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Jóna Sólveig Elínardóttir
Director of the Hybrid Threats Department, Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs
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Anna-Katharina Ferl
Research Associate, Peace Research Institute Frankfurt
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Beatrice Fihn
Executive Director, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
2017 Nobel Peace Prize-Winning Campaign Coalition
Andrew Futter
Professor of International Politics, University of Leicester
Member, Cyber-Nuclear Security Threats Task Force, Nuclear Threat Initiative
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Nancy Gallagher
Director, Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM); Research Professor, University of Maryland's School of Public Policy
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Sarah Gamberini
Senior Policy Fellow, National Defense University (NDU), Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction (CSWMD)
Rebecca Gibbons
Associate Professor, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Southern Maine
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Francesca Giovannini
Executive Director, Project on Managing the Atom at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs
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Oleksii Goncharenko
Member of Parliament, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
Rose Gottemoeller
Former Deputy Secretary General of NATO; Frank E. and Arthur W. Payne Distinguished Lecturer at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Thomas Graham, Jr.
Former U.S. Special Representative for Arms Control, Non-Proliferation, and Disarmament, Acting Director and Acting Deputy Director, U.S Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
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Hugh Gusterson
Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs, George Washington University
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Sascha Hach
Research Associate and Doctoral Researcher, Peace Research Institute Frankfurt
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Melissa Hanham
Deputy Director, Open Nuclear Network
​Guðmundur Hálfdánarson
Professor in History, University of Iceland
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Pia Hansson
Director, Institute of International Affairs at the University of Iceland
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Jingjie He
ACONA Fellow '23, PhD Candidate, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Emily J. Holland
Assistant Professor, Russia Maritime Studies Institute at the United States Naval War College
Visiting Scholar, NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia
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Valeriia Hesse
ACONA Alumna
Researcher, Odesa Center for Nonproliferation
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Renata Hessmann Dalaqua
Head of Gender and Disarmament Program, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research
Edward M. Ifft
Former U.S. arms control negotiator
Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
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Vincent J. Intondi
Former Director of Research for American University’s Nuclear Studies Institute
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Tynchtykbek Israiilov
ACONA Alumnus
Project Manager, OSCE
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Igor Istomin
Associate Professor, Department of Applied International Political Analysis, MGIMO University; Davis Senior Scholar, Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies
Moriba Jah
Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, University of Texas, Former Spacecraft Navigator, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Katrín Jakobsdóttir
Prime Minister of Iceland
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Dominik Jankowski
Policy Adviser, Office of the Secretary General, NATO
Tinatin Japaridze
Director of Policy and Strategy, The Critical Mass
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Tianjiao Jiang
Associate Professor, Development Institute
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María Mjöll Jónsdótti
Director General, Directorate for International Affairs and Policy at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Iceland
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Angela Kane
Sam Nunn Distinguished Fellow at NTI, Former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, and Under-Secretary-General for Management
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Vasily Kashin
Senior Research Fellow, Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies, National Research University–Higher School of Economics
Research Fellow, Institute of the Russian Far East
Togzhan Kassenova
Nonresident Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Laura Kennedy
Former U.S. Ambassador to Turkmenistan, Former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Former U.S. Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and Special Representative for Biological Weapons Convention Issues
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Soo Kim
Policy Analyst, Rand Corporation
Adjunct Instructor, American University
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Daryl G. Kimball
Executive Director, Arms Control Association
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Alexander Kmentt
Ambassador and Director of Disarmament, Arms Control and Nonproliferation, Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Former Permanent Representative of Austria to the Political and Security Committee of the European Union
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Matt Kokkinos
Coordinator, Negotiation Task Force
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Alexander Kolbin
Consultant, PIR Center
Andrey Kortunov
Director General, Russian Affairs Council
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Dmitry Kovchegin
Independent Researcher and Consultant, Nuclear Regulatory Analysis
Former Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, Harvard Kennedy School
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Jyri Lavikainen
Researcher, Finnish Foreign Policy, Northern European Security and NATO Research Programme, Finnish Institute of International Affairs
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Laura Lepsy
Junior Expert and Researcher on Arms Control Matters
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Robert Litwak
Senior Vice President and Director of International Security Studies, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Former Director for Non-Proliferation, National Security Council
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Herbert Lin
Senior Research Scholar, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Hank J. Holland Fellow in Cyber Policy and Security, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
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Rosa Magnusdottir
Associate Professor of History, Aarhus University
Jeffrey Mankoff
Senior Associate, CSIS Russia and Eurasia Program
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Thilo Marauhn
Professor for Public Law and International Law, Justus Liebig University Giessen
Adlan Margoev
Analyst, Institute for International Studies, MGIMO University
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Rose McDermott
David and Mariana Fisher University Professor of International Relations, Brown University
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Oliver Meier
Senior Researcher, Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg
Former Deputy Head, International Security Division, German Institute for International and Security Affairs
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Steven Miller
Director of the International Security Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard University Kennedy School
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Izumi Nakamitsu
Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations
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Nomsa Ndongwe
Research Associate, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies
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Amy Nelson
Fellow, Foreign Policy, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology, Brookings Institution
Michiru Nishida
Professor, Nagasaki University
Former Special Advisor for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
Jón Gunnar Ólafsson
Former Acting Director of the Institute of International Affairs at the University of Iceland
Jón Ólafsson
Professor of Cultural and Russian Studies, University of Iceland
Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir
Professor at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Iceland
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Brynja Huld Óskarsdóttir
Defence Specialist, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Iceland
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Christian F. Ostermann
Director of the History and Public Policy Program (HAPP), Woodrow Wilson Center
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Pavel Palazhchenko
Head of the International Relations and PR Department at the Gorbachev Foundation
Melissa Parke
Executive Director, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
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Carrin F. Patman
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Iceland
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Steven Pifer
Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative, Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, and Center on the United States and Europe, Brookings Institution
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine
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Joseph Pilat
Senior Advisor in the National Security Office, Office of the Director, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Pavel Podvig
Senior Researcher, Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme, UNIDIR
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William Potter
Professor, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey; Director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies
Giordana Pulcini
Fellow at the University of Roma Tre
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Bo Qu
Associate Professor and Director, Institute of International Relations, China Foreign Affairs University
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Ali Rached
ACONA Alumnus
Senior Policy Officer in charge of Multilateral Affairs, Strategic Partnerships, INTERPOL General Secretariat
Guy Roberts
former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs
Laura Rockwood
Director, Open Nuclear Network
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Nickolas Roth
Senior Director, Nuclear Threat Initiative
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Mahsa Rouhi
Research Fellow at the Center for Strategic Research, Institute for National Strategic Studies, at the National Defense University
Lynn Rusten
Vice President of the Global Nuclear Policy Program, Nuclear Threat Initiative
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Alice Saltini
Research Coordinator, European Leadership Network
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Olamide Samuel
Track II diplomat and researcher in arms control
Former Coordinator of SCRAP Weapons 2019-2021
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Svetlana Savranskaya
Director of Russia Programs, George Washington University's National Security Archive
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Sayaka Shingu
Doctoral Candidate, Hitotsubashi University, Ministry of Foreing Affairs of Japan
Dmitry Stefanovich
Research Fellow, Center for Internstional Security, Russian Academy of Sciences
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Danny Stoian
Fellow, Negotiation Task Force, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Legislative Affairs, U.S. Department of State
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Jacob Stokes
Fellow for the Indo-Pacific Security Program, Center for a New American Security
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Lev M. Sokolshchik
Postdoctoral Researcher, Higher School of Economic
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Elisabeth Suh
Associate, German Institute for International and Security Affairs
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Dmitry V. Suslov
Deputy Director, Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies, National Research University – High School of Economics
Adnan Tabatabai
Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient (CARPO)
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Moshik Temkin
Visiting Scholar at the Middle East Initiative at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Chair in Leadership and History at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University
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Gleb Toropchin
Associate Professor, Faculty of Humanities, Novosibirsk State Technical University
Associate Professor, Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management
Jenny Town
Senior Fellow, Stimson Center
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Bruce Turner
U.S. Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament
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Christopher Twomey
Associate Professor, Naval Postgraduate School Lead Organizer
US-China Strategic Dialogue Former Director, Center for Contemporary Conflict at NPS
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Ali Vaez
Iran Project Director & Advisor to the President, Crisis Group
Michael Waller
President of Georgetown Research; Vice President for Government Relations at the Center for Security Policy
Margot Wallström
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Sweden
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Marc Weller
Chair of International Law and International Constitutional Studies, University of Cambridge, Former United Nations Senior Mediation Expert
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Elayne Whyte Gomez
Former Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations in Geneva
Professor of Practice, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies
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Heather Williams
Director, Project on Nuclear Issues
Senior Fellow, International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
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James Wilson
Researcher, US Department of State Office of the Historian
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Casper Wits
Lecturer, Institute for Area Studies, Leiden University
Jon Wolfsthal
Senior Advisor, Global Zero
Member, Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Former Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Former Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Former Special Assistant to the President for National Security and Senior Director for Nonproliferation and Arms Control at the National Security Council
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Amy Woolf
Nuclear Weapons Policy Specialist, Congressional Research Research Service at the Library of Congress
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Yue Yuan
ACONA Alumna
Assistant Professor, The Institute of International Relations, China Foreign Affairs University
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Tong Zhao
Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
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Katarzyna Zysk
Professor, Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies
Baroness Catherine Ashton, former EU High Rep. for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy & Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland, speak at the ACONA Conference 2022.
Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, addressing ACONA Fellows (virtually) in January, 2021.