Yvonne Wolfmayr is a research fellow at the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) in Vienna, which is one of the leading institutes for empirical and policy oriented research. She holds a masters degree in economics from the University of Vienna and completed her doctorate program at the University of Innsbruck with a major in International Economics in May 2010. In 1998 she was a visiting scholar at the UCLA.

Her main research interests are in the field of foreign direct investments and the theory of the multinational firm as well as trade in services and linkages between services and manufacturing trade. Most of her work focuses on questions related to the integration of Central and East European Countries and the impact of international outsourcing and FDI on employment in home countries, in specific. She has been involved in or has led several projects (both national and international (EU and OECD)) in the areas noted. Her publications in journals include: Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Empirica and several book chapters. In addition, she is an expert to and part of the organizing team at the Research Centre in International Economics (FIW) which provides support to the Austrian scientific community in the field of International Economics and offers expert analysis on a number of current policy related issues in International Economics. She has also been an expert to the Austrian Advisory Council for foreign trade policy and is a member of the Advisory Board on foreign trade statistics at the national statistical office (Statistics Austria).

Dr. Wolfmayr was a visiting scholar with the Forum on Contemporary Europe from June-August, 2010.

Vibeke Kieding Banik is currently affiliated as a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo. Her main focus of research is on the history of minorities in Scandinavia, particularly Jews, with an emphasis on migration and integration. Her research interests also include gender history, and her current project investigates whether there was a gendered integration strategy among Scandinavian Jews in the period 1900-1940. Dr. Banik has authored several articles on Jewish life in Norway, Jewish historiography and the Norwegian women’s suffragette movement. She has taught extensively on Jewish history and is currently writing a book on the history of the Norwegian Jews, scheduled to be published in 2015.

Vibeke Kieding Banik was a visiting scholar and Anna Lindh Fellow with The Europe Center in 2013-2014.

Prof. Heinz Gärtner is academic director (since 2013) at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs (oiip) in Vienna, Austria and senior scientist at the University of Vienna. He is Lecturer at the National Defense Academy and at the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna. He was a Fulbright Fellow at the World Policy Institute as well as the Visiting Austrian Chair at Stanford University in 2001-2002. In 2008 he held again a Fulbright Professorship at the Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI). In 2012 he was Visiting Professor at the FSI. Heinz Gärtner was visiting Professor at St. Hugh's College, Oxford (1992), and at the Institute for International Relations, Vancouver, Canada (1993), and at the University of Erlangen (Germany) (1994/95). He lectures often at other American, European, and Asian universities and research institutes. Heinz Gärtner has received international recognition for his work on European, international security, and arms control. He is also a frequent commentator on European and Austrian television, radio, and print media, including CNN Europe and the BBC. He also acts as a Special Adviser to the Austrian Ministry of Defense. He was academic member of the Austrian delegation of the Wassenaar arms export control arrangement in the framework of the Austrian presidency (2005). He supervised several large projects on NATO, and comprehensive security, and arms control. Heinz Gärtner received the Bruno Kreisky (legendary former Austrian Chancellor) Award for most outstanding Political Books: “Models of European Security“ (1998). Gärtner holds several international, and European, and Austrian academic memberships.

Heinz Gärtner is the author of numerous academic articles and books.

Some of his books are:

• Die neue Rolle der USA und Europa (America’s New Role and Europe), (lit-Verlag: Münster), 2012.
• Obama and the Bomb: The Vision of a World free of Nuclear Weapons (ed.), (Peter Lang publisher: Frankfurt-New York- Vienna; 2011).

• USA – Weltmacht auf neuen Wegen: Die Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik Barack Obamas, (America - World Power breaks New Ground), third updated edition, (lit-Verlag: Münster), 2010.
• Internationale Sicherheit - Definitionen von A-Z (International Security - Definitions from A-Z), second revised and extended edition, (Nomos: Baden-Baden), 2008.
• European Security and Transatlantic Relations after September 11 and the Iraq War, editor together with Ian Cuthbertson, (Palgrave-MacMillan: Houndmills), 2005.
• Small States and Alliances, editor together with Erich Reiter, (Springer: Berlin) 2001, 300 pages.
• Europe’s New Security Challenges, editor together with Adrian Hyde-Price and Erich Reiter, (Lynne Rinner: Boulder/London) 2001, 470 pages.

Heinz Gärtner also is editor of the books series “International Security” (Publisher: Peter Lang).

Some of his recent academic articles are:

• Deterrence and Disarmament, Europe’s World online, 26 02 2012.
• The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and Libya,” Europe’s World online, 02 07 2011.
• A Nuclear-Weapon Zone in the Middle East, Europe’s World online, 24 05 2011.
• A year of Amano's leadership in IAEA, Bulletin of American Atomic Scientists, December, 2011.
• Non-proliferation & Engagement: Iran & North Korea should not let the opportunity slip by, Defense & Security Analysis, Volume 26 edition 3, September 2010.
• Towards a Theory of Arms Export Control, International Politics, Vol. 47, 1, January 2010, 125–143.

Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a faculty member of FSI's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL). He is also Director of Stanford's Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy, and a professor (by courtesy) of Political Science.

Dr. Fukuyama has written widely on issues in development and international politics. His 1992 book, The End of History and the Last Man, has appeared in over twenty foreign editions. His book In the Realm of the Last Man: A Memoir will be published in fall 2026.

Francis Fukuyama received his B.A. from Cornell University in classics, and his Ph.D. from Harvard in Political Science. He was a member of the Political Science Department of the RAND Corporation, and of the Policy Planning Staff of the US Department of State. From 1996-2000 he was Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Professor of Public Policy at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University, and from 2001-2010 he was Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. He served as a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics from 2001-2004. He is editor-in-chief of American Purpose, an online journal.

Dr. Fukuyama holds honorary doctorates from Connecticut College, Doane College, Doshisha University (Japan), Kansai University (Japan), Aarhus University (Denmark), the Pardee Rand Graduate School, and Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland). He is a non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rand Corporation, the Board of Trustees of Freedom House, and the Board of the Volcker Alliance. He is a fellow of the National Academy for Public Administration, a member of the American Political Science Association, and of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is married to Laura Holmgren and has three children.

(October 2025)