Andrew A. Michta
Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security in Washington, DC.
Andrew A. Michta is recognized as a leading voice in transatlantic security and defense policy. Prior to joining the Atlantic Council, he was the former dean of the College of International and Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies. He holds a PhD in international relations from Johns Hopkins University and is an expert in international security, NATO, and European politics, with a particular focus on Central Europe and the Baltic states.

Throughout his career, he has held key academic and research positions, including professor of national security affairs at the US Naval War College and senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund and the Center for European Policy Analysis. He has also been affiliated with Harvard University’s Center for European Studies and Stanford’s Hoover Institution.

Michta has written extensively on European security and NATO, with notable works such as The Limits of Alliance: The United States, NATO and the EU in North and Central Europe and The Future of NATO: Regional Defense and Global Security. His research and policy contributions focus on transatlantic relations, defense strategy, and security challenges in post-communist Europe. He’s fluent in Polish and Russian, and proficient in German and French.

Marycruz Arcos Vargas
Associate professor of public international law and international relations University of Sevilla

Arcos Vargas studied law at the University of Seville and specialized in the European Union in the Master of the College of Europe in Bruges. She received her doctorate from the University of Seville with a thesis on decision-making processes in the EU under the supervision of Professor Carrillo.

Currently, Arcos Vargas is a professor of public international law and international relations at the University of Seville. She coordinates the master’s degree in European studies, in which she teaches institutional system, internal market, competition policy and external relations of the EU. She also manages the academic direction of the European Documentation Center and the Europedirect information point in Seville while presiding over the Andalusian Council of the European Movement.