- Lab Session |
Munich Security Conference 2026
Stephen will provide insights from the recent Munich Security Conference, highlighting key themes emerging from both public sessions and closed-door discussions. He will address the state of Euro-Atlantic relations, the dynamics of great power competition, and the evolving interplay between values, interests, and international norms in shaping the emerging international order in the Trump era.
*As Crisis Group’s chief of policy, Stephen works across the organisation’s programs to develop and promote Crisis Group’s analysis and prescriptions, and to present them to public and private audiences. He is based in Washington, DC and Basel, Switzerland. Prior to joining Crisis Group, Stephen served as special assistant to the president and senior director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights at the National Security Council under President Obama. He also served as senior director for African affairs. Prior to joining the staff of the National Security Council, he served in a variety of roles with the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State, where he specialised in domestic and international law regulating the use of force and international human rights law, including as the assistant legal adviser for Political-Military Affairs. Outside government, Stephen has been a senior policy scholar at the U.S. Institute of Peace, a non-residential Senior Fellow at the Columbia Human Rights Institute, and a Leonard and Sophie Davis Genocide Prevention distinguished fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He was also in private practice at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. Currently, he is a non-residential senior fellow at the NYU Law School Reiss Center on Law and Security and a member of the Board of Editors of Just Security. He has published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Politico, The Atlantic, Just Security, Slate, Project Syndicate, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, Newsweek, Time and The Washington Monthly. Stephen received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and his law degree from Yale Law School.
*As Crisis Group’s chief of policy, Stephen works across the organisation’s programs to develop and promote Crisis Group’s analysis and prescriptions, and to present them to public and private audiences. He is based in Washington, DC and Basel, Switzerland. Prior to joining Crisis Group, Stephen served as special assistant to the president and senior director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights at the National Security Council under President Obama. He also served as senior director for African affairs. Prior to joining the staff of the National Security Council, he served in a variety of roles with the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State, where he specialised in domestic and international law regulating the use of force and international human rights law, including as the assistant legal adviser for Political-Military Affairs. Outside government, Stephen has been a senior policy scholar at the U.S. Institute of Peace, a non-residential Senior Fellow at the Columbia Human Rights Institute, and a Leonard and Sophie Davis Genocide Prevention distinguished fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He was also in private practice at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. Currently, he is a non-residential senior fellow at the NYU Law School Reiss Center on Law and Security and a member of the Board of Editors of Just Security. He has published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Politico, The Atlantic, Just Security, Slate, Project Syndicate, Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, Newsweek, Time and The Washington Monthly. Stephen received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and his law degree from Yale Law School.