Ideas Of India 2025: An intelligence analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a member of the US Senior Foreign Service, and a polyglot who speaks four foreign languages — Hungarian, Swedish, French, and “some Spanish” — and is working on learning a fifth, Georgian: Kurt Volker, one of the panelists at ABP Network’s Ideas Of India 2025, has several feathers in his cap.
At the conclave, which will be held from February 21-22 in Mumbai, on the theme ‘Humanity’s Next Frontier’, Volker will address a session on ‘The New World Order: View From America’. To be moderated by MP and former United Nations Under-Secretary General Shashi Tharoor, the session promises to be a crackling dive into the geopolitical churn driving contemporary international relations.
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With nearly four decades of professional experience in several roles, including in the government as well as the private sector, Kurt Volker is considered a leading expert in US foreign and national security policy
NATO Envoy To Special Rep For Ukraine Talks
From 2017-2019, during the first presidency of Donald Trump, Volker served as the US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations, which were aimed at ending an over-five-year conflict in eastern Ukraine. A ceasefire was finally reached in December 2019, brokered with the help of France and Germany.
Volker also served as US Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) between 2008 and 2009, a role that saw him “deeply involved in pushing back on Russia’s invasion of Georgia, the ramp-up of military efforts in Afghanistan, the return of France to NATO’s military structure, the enlargement of NATO to 28 members, and NATO’s 60th Anniversary Summit in Strasbourg, France”, according to a profile on the Arizona State University website.
Volker is also president and founder of Alliance Strategic Advisors, LLC, which provides strategic advice and services to business clients with interest in Central and Eastern Europe. Additionally, he is a senior international adviser at BGR Group, which provides government relations, public relations, and business advisory services to a wide array of clients.
Apart from this, Volker has taught transatlantic relations at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs, his alma mater.
Volker, who is married to Georgia-born journalist Ia Meurmishvili, holds a BA from Temple University and an MA from the Elliott School of International Affairs.
Stay tuned to ABP Live for all the updates from Ideas Of India 2025, a stunning conclave involving movers and shakers from a wide variety of fields, from politics and cinema to cooking, culture, and science. Other guests include the Grammy-winning musician Ricky Kej, travel writer Pico Iyer, and thespians Shabana Azmi and Amol Palekar.
