Philipp Rotmann

Philipp Rotmann is a director of the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin, where he leads the work on peace and security. His interests include how to better anticipate, prevent and reduce mass violence, including through stabilization programs, improving security governance, peace operations, monitoring and evaluation, and how Germany and the European Union could contribute more effectively to these efforts. His work explores new directions in areas such as financial analysis in security policy, war-gaming conflict and intervention, and strategic foresight. He is a member of the German Federal Foreign Office’s independent evaluation panel and directs GPPi’s StabilizationLab project.

Philipp served as a senior political adviser with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan and the German Federal Foreign Office on the Afghanistan-Pakistan task force. He also worked briefly for the UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Previously, he developed web applications and co-managed a small IT company.

Philipp has been a guest on a number of German and international television programs, including Al Jazeera, the BBC and ZDF. His commentary has appeared in a wide array of news outlets, such as the International New York Times, Project Syndicate and DIE WELT. Other major publications include Krieg vor der Haustür: Die Gewalt in Europas Nachbarschaft und was wir dagegen tun können (with Sarah Brockmeier, 2019), Changing Security Governance: Lessons for External Support (2018), Stabilization: Doctrine, Organization and Practice (2014), and The New World of UN Peace Operations: Learning to Build Peace? (Oxford University Press, 2011). 

Philipp studied economics, political science and law for his bachelor’s degree in Erfurt and Essex, and international relations for his master’s degree in Berlin and Potsdam. From 2008 to 2010, he was a McCloy Scholar at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he received a master’s degree in public administration. His studies were supported by scholarships from Harvard University, the German National Academic Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and the Haniel Foundation.