Thorsten Benner is co-founder and associate director of the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin. His areas of expertise include international organizations (focusing on the United Nations), global security governance, global energy and the public-private interface in global governance as well as Europe's global role and EU relations with the US and rising powers. Prior to co-founding the Global Public Policy Institute in 2003, he worked with the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, the UN Development Program (UNDP) in New York and the Global Public Policy Project in Washington, DC.
His commentary has appeared in DIE ZEIT, the International Herald Tribune, the L.A. Times, Handelsblatt, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Financial Times Deutschland and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, among others. His publications include The New World of UN Peace Operations: Learning to Build Peace? (Oxford University Press 2011) and Critical Choices. The United Nations, Networks, and the Future of Global Governance (Ottawa 2000). He teaches in the Executive Master of Public Management (EMPM) and Master of Public Policy (MPP) programs at the Hertie School of Governance. From 2004-2007 he was a co-director of the Hertie School of Governance executive education program on global public policy.
He studied political science, history and sociology at the University of Siegen (Germany), the University of York (UK) and the University of California at Berkeley. From 2001-2003 he was a McCloy Scholar at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he received a Master in Public Administration (MPA). He received scholarships from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the German National Academic Foundation.
