Senior Transatlantic Fellow, The German Marshall Fund of the United States, Washington, DC.
Ian Lesser came to GMF in November 2006 from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, where he led a major project on the future of US-Turkish relations. He is also President of Mediterranean Advisors, LLC, and senior advisor to the Luso-American Foundation in Lisbon. Prior to establishing Mediterranean Advisors, Ian was Vice President and Director of Studies at the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles, and spent over a decade at RAND as a senior analyst and research manager specializing in strategic studies and Mediterranean security. From 1994-1995, he was a member of the Secretary's Policy Planning Staff at the US Department of State, where his portfolio included southern Europe, Turkey, and the multilateral track of the Middle East peace process.
He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Council of the US, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the advisory boards of Turkish Policy Quarterly and the International Spectator, and is a former senior fellow of the Onassis foundation.