Dr. Stefanie Babst

Dr Stefanie Babst is one of the few women in Germany who can look back on a successful career in international politics. This began in 1998 with her first assignment to the International Staff of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Brussels.

After only a short time, Stefanie Babst was promoted to Head of Division and was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in May 2006. This not only made her the highest-ranking German woman on NATO's International Staff, but also helped to shape the Alliance's communications and media policy in a variety of ways. In the following years, Stefanie Babst supported a large number of ministerial and summit meetings as well as the enlargement processes, partnerships and operations of the Western defence alliance. From 2012-2020, Stefanie Babst led NATO's Crisis Anticipation and Strategic Planning Staff, advising not only the NATO Secretary General but also the respective Chairmen of the NATO Military Committee on global and strategic security issues.

As a true NATO insider, Stefanie Babst therefore has extremely intimate knowledge of the transatlantic alliance, some of which she has analysed in her book ‘Sehenden Auges - Mut zum strategischen Kurswechsel’, published in April 2023. Just a few days after its publication, the book hit the bestseller list and has since also been published in English, Ukrainian and Estonian. As an expert for the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag, she warned of Russian military aggression against Ukraine as early as the beginning of 2022 and has been a relentlessly outspoken supporter of Ukraine ever since. The Süddeutsche Zeitung judges what Dr Babst has to report: ‘Sobering and enlightening at the same time.’ She stands for a combination of expertise and plain speaking. Or as the Handelsblatt states: ‘Accurate and profound.’ As a consultant, she is equipped with the intellectual firepower and geopolitical rigour needed to succeed in today's networked and complex world.

Stefanie Babst, who ended her work for NATO in March 2020, is now a much sought-after strategic advisor and publicist. She is active in various global networks and forums: as a board member of the German Council on Foreign Relations, the Danish Institute for the Studies of War, the Norwegian Centre for Security and Resilience UTSYN, the World Economic Forum and the European Leadership Network in London. She supports several multilateral projects on European security ‘behind the scenes’ and is a frequently requested advisor to top German and international business managers. Manager Magazin and the Boston Consulting Group voted her one of the top 100 most influential women in German business in 2022. Thanks to her impressive political network, she is not only very familiar with many European government representatives, but also with political and economic decision-makers in North America, the Middle East and Asia

As a speaker, media woman and strategic advisor, Stefanie Babst not only impresses with her critically reflective analysis of the many security policy challenges of our time, but above all with her presentation of pragmatic solutions. As a convinced European and transatlanticist, she has a precise idea of the strategic direction in which the democratic West must move if it wants to continue to successfully defend its liberal order and values in the future.