Dr. Thorsten Klaßen was, from 2017 to 2022, DGAP’s chief operating officer.

Previously, from 2015 to 2017, Klaßen served as senior director development and board member at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). Between 2002 and 2015, he held various positions at the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) in Berlin and Washington, DC, most recently as director development. In addition, he served as senior consultant for the German association of forest owners, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutscher Waldbesitzer (AGDW).

Klaßen holds a graduate degree in English and American studies, modern history, and education studies from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University of Bonn. In 2008, he earned his PhD in political science from Freie Universität Berlin. In his dissertation, Klaßen analyzed German-American relations on foreign and security policy during President Bill Clinton’s first term.