Areas of Expertise

Indian foreign, trade, and security policy
EU-India relations
Politics and security in South Asia
Global order and geopolitics
India in international organizations

Short Bio

Leo Wigger has led DGAP’s newly established India Center since August 2026. Before taking up this role, he spent nine years at Candid Foundation, a Berlin-based foreign policy think-and-do tank, where he most recently served as head of program, shareholder, and associate partner. Earlier in his career, he worked in the Cabinet of the President of the European Parliament, at a management consultancy in Hamburg, and at the ZEIT Foundation. As a Mercator Fellow, Wigger worked on strengthening EU-South Asia relations, focusing on how European policy institutions can better prepare for the growing strategic importance of the Indian subcontinent. From April to December 2025, he was a visiting fellow on India and South Asia at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO).

In addition to his policy work, Wigger has worked as a freelance journalist, writing regularly on international affairs for German and international media. He is also co-author of a book on Qatar and serves on the editorial advisory and publishing board of zenith, an independent German-language magazine that focuses on the Arab and Islamic world.

Wigger holds an master’s degree in state, society, and development from SOAS University of London, specializing in South Asia, and a bachelor’s degree in integrated European studies from the University of Bremen. In 2023, as a Raisina Young Fellow, he participated in the Asian Forum on Global Governance, a program in Delhi jointly organized by the Observer Research Foundation and ZEIT Foundation.