Areas of Expertise

  • German foreign and security policy
  • Global order and geopolitics
  • Transatlantic relations
  • Ukraine’s recovery

Short Bio

Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff has been the Otto Wolff Director of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) since August 2024. Previously, he served as the Guido Goldman Distinguished Scholar for Geostrategy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). He led GMF’s Berlin office and was a member of the organization's executive team for a decade.

From 2013 to 2017, Kleine-Brockhoff served as an advisor to German Federal President Joachim Gauck, leading the unit for policy planning and speechwriting in the president’s office. Before transitioning to policy advising and think tank leadership, Kleine-Brockhoff had a career in journalism. He worked for Die Zeit, where he served as Washington bureau chief.

Kleine-Brockhoff is a seasoned expert on transatlantic foreign and security policy and is deeply engaged in issues concerning the global order. He is the author of The World Needs the West – A Fresh Start for a Liberal Order (2019) and co-author of the GMF studies Designing Ukraine’s Recovery in the Spirit of the Marshall Plan (2022) and Toward a Marshall Plan for Ukraine (2023).
 

Languages

German, English

 

[Last updated: August 2024]

Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff

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Expertise

Publications

Ukrainische Drohne wird in München vorgestellt. Die Drohne ist von unten im Flug zu sehen, über ihr ein Glasdach. Am Rand des Bildausschnitts erkennt man Gebäude.

Deutschland muss hybride Angreifer abschrecken

Gastbeitrag
Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff
Jürgen-Joachim von Sandrart
Es ist nicht möglich, alle möglichen Ziele hybrider Kriegsführung zu schützen. Um den Bedrohungen zu begegnen, muss Deutschland unkonventionell zurückschlagen können.
Externe Publikationen
Teaser Bild White Paper_No-2_KK-Forum Special

Aufklären, Abschrecken, Verteidigen

Ein Konzept zur Abwehr des hybriden Krieges gegen Deutschland
Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff
Nico Lange
Jürgen-Joachim von Sandrart
et al.
Die Zeit der Weckrufe ist vorbei. Deutschland muss handeln, um hybride Angriffe wirksamer abzuwehren und auch abzuschrecken.
White Paper
US President Donald Trump speaks as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi gestures toward military personnel, aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, during their visit to the US Navy's Yokosuka base in Yokosuka, Japan, October 28, 2025.

Japan Doubles Down on “Plan A” vis-à-vis America

purchasable

Faced with a Trump administration that is treating allies as free-riders, the Japanese are trying to prove their indispensability—for a lack of other options.

Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff
IPQ
Visual DGAP Memo Series on Global Reordering 2026

Global Reordering, German Responses

Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff
Kira Vinke
Increasingly wedged between the aspirations of three global superpowers building spheres of influence, Germany needs a clear strategy of its own to avoid subordination by a drastically changed United States. Here, DGAP experts take stock of affected policy fields and outline a path forward.
Memo

In the media

Media Center