Scientific Committee
Dr. George FRIEDMAN is an internationally recognized geopolitical forecaster and strategist on international affairs and the founder and chairman of Geopolitical Futures.
Dr. Friedman is a New York Times bestselling author and his most popular book, The Next 100 Years, is kept alive by the prescience of its predictions. Other best-selling books include Flashpoints: The Emerging Crisis in Europe, The Next Decade, America’s Secret War, The Future of War and The Intelligence Edge. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages.
Dr. Friedman has briefed numerous military and government organizations in the United States and overseas and appears regularly as an expert on international affairs, foreign policy and intelligence in major media.
For almost 20 years before resigning in May 2015, Dr. Friedman was CEO and then chairman of Stratfor, a company he founded in 1996. Friedman received his bachelor’s degree from the City College of the City University of New York and holds a doctorate in government from Cornell University.
Dr. James Jay CARAFANO, a leading expert in national security and foreign policy challenges, is the vice president of Heritage’s Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute, and the E. W. Richardson.
Dr. Carafano is an accomplished historian and teacher as well as a prolific writer and researcher. His most recent publication is an e-book, “Surviving the End”, which addresses emergency preparedness. He also authored “Wiki at War: Conflict in a Socially Networked World” (Texas A&M University Press, 2012), a survey of the revolutionary impact of the Internet age on national security. He was selected from thousands to speak on cyber warfare at the 2014 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Conference in Austin, Texas, the nation’s premier tech and social media conference.
Before assuming responsibility for Heritage’s entire defense and foreign policy team in December 2012, Carafano had served as deputy director of the Davis Institute as well as director of its Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies since 2009.
His recent research has focused on developing the national security required to secure the long-term interests of the United States — protecting the public, providing for economic growth and preserving civil liberties. (Many of his writings for Heritage appear below.)
He is editor of a book series, The Changing Face of War, which examines how emerging political, social, economic and cultural trends will affect the nature of armed conflict. From 2012 to 2014, he served on the Homeland Security Advisory Council convened by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Carafano, a 25-year Army veteran with a master’s and doctorate from Georgetown University, joined Heritage in 2003 as a senior research fellow in homeland security and missile defense. He worked with Kim R. Holmes, his predecessor as vice president and director of Davis Institute, to produce Heritage’s groundbreaking documentary film “33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age.”
H.E. George Cristian MAIOR, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Romania to the United States
Mr. Maior is a university professor and PhD coordinator at the Department of International Relations and European Integration within the National School of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest. He published a great number of articles and books covering topics from human rights and public law to international relations, strategic thinking, security and intelligence studies.
He was invited as keynote speaker at prestigious universities, organizations, and think-tanks (Harvard Kennedy School of Government, George Washington University, American University, National Intelligence University, Atlantic Council, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Center for European Policy Analysis, AIPAC, etc.). He is a member of the Honorary Board of Advisors of the “National Student Leadership Foundation.”
Following his nomination by the President of Romania and the vote received from the Romanian Parliament, on October 4th, 2006, George Cristian Maior was appointed the 4thDirector of the Romanian Intelligence Service. During his eight years at the helm of this institution (up until February 2015), the SRI went through an extensive reform process which allowed it to strengthen bilateral and multilateral partnerships with the most important intelligence services in the democratic world, as well as to gain and consolidate a high level of public confidence.
H.E. Cristian DIACONESCU is member of United Nations Group of Eminent Persons for Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Armaments
Cristian Diaconescu is currently professor in International Law, ambassador and member of United Nations Group of Eminent Persons for Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Armaments .
He served as Romania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2008 to 2009 and in 2012.
Diaconescu sat in the Romanian Senate between 2004 to 2012 and held the position of Vice President of the Senate between 2011 to 2012.
In 2004, he served as Minister of Justice. Prior to this, he was Secretary of State for Bilateral Affairs at the Foreign Affairs Ministry and deputy Head of Mission to the UN and the OSCE Mission in Vienna.
Dr. Ganna KHARLAMOVA, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kiev, Ukraine
Dr. Kharlamova is a university teacher as well as an analytic and researcher. Dr. Kharlamova is the key expert in national security (particularly energy security, investment security, environmental safety and economic security. Her best-selling 2017 books include Doctrine 2030. The sustainable development of Ukraine (recognized as Top-10 Ukrainian books); The investment security of Ukraine: rating assessment. Her scientific publications listed more than 300 issues. Her recent research has focused on developing the national security: Dynamic and stochastic modeling and forecasting methods of Ukraine’s national security under modern geo-economic threats.
Dr. Kharlamova appears regularly as an expert on macroeconomic forecasting and economic security in main Ukrainian mass media. She shares her work time as the adjunct analytics-consultant for some Kyivan daily newspapers: “Segodnya” (“Today”), “Chas Kyivschyny” (“Kyivian region time”), “Gazeta po-kievsky” (“Kievian newspaper”)and as the head of Public Council for the Ministry of Education and Sceince of Ukraine.
She had been visiting professor in the UK, Turkey, Romania, and Poland. Ganna Kharlamova used to be the co-director of several NATO ARWs and participated in the range of international conferences, workshops, and projects (TEMPUS, FP7 etc). She is the coach and facilitator for the British Council in Ukraine (University leadership development Programme). Dr. Kharlamova is an experienced in-house staff, key-expert at the think-tank (ad hoc) “Doctrine of sustainable development of Ukraine 2030”.
She received many awards in Ukraine for her research activity: for example, the gratitude award of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine (2018), Honour Awards of National Academy of Science of Ukraine (2003, 2012) etc.
Dr. Silviu NATE is director of Global Studies Center, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (LBUS)
Silviu Nate is an associate professor at LBUS, being in charge of the undergraduate program: Security Studies, has expertise in political sciences, international relations, and security studies. He coordinated various national and international projects in the nongovernmental and academic sector on leadership, entrepreneurship, sustainable development, migration, international security and energy security. Currently, Silviu Nate is the director of the Global Studies Center.
Dr. Nate authored or edited several books like Intelligence and Societal Security. Challenges of a Joint Transition; Geopolitics of an Imperfect World; Understanding and Tackling the Migration Challenge: Mapping Options for a Resilient Approach.
He has a BA in Political Science; in 2003 he received a scholarship from The Fund for American Studies (TFAS) and graduated from the Georgetown University’s International Institute for Political and Economic Studies. He has benefited from several fellowship programs, outside the country, from the Center for Democratic Control of the Armed Forces (DCAF), Geneva (Switzerland) in 2004; from TFAS is Athens, Greece, Atlantic Treaty Association in 2006; from the Center for South East European Studies, Bulgaria; Institute Euro-Balkan, Macedonia; NATO’s Science for Peace and Security Program, Plovdiv (Bulgaria) in 2009. Dr. Nate participated in simulations and specialization courses hosted by the US Embassy and Monterey Naval Academy, the Republican International Institute, the British Council, the Austrian Foreign Ministry, United Nations Development Program, The Leadership Group USA, etc.
Silviu Nate is the president of the International Cooperation and Peace Studies Center, has a 15 years’ experience in the field of NGOs and civil society projects. He graduated two master’s programs in the fields of national and international security; has obtained his Ph.D. in Military Sciences and Intelligence at the National Intelligence Academy “Mihai Viteazul” in Bucharest. Dr. Nate participated as an expert in various public debates regarding the development of strategic documents of national interest.