The future of US military presence in Europe and implications for NATO: A conversation with the Honorable Kathleen Hicks, former US Deputy Secretary of Defense

Ville Sinkkonen is Leading Researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Center on US Politics and Power. He also holds the Title of Docent in International Politics at the University of Turku. His research focuses on US foreign policy, great-power politics, the changing international order, normative power and the politics of trust in international relations.

Kathleen Hicks served as the 35th US Deputy Secretary of Defense, where she led the day-to-day global operations of the Department of Defense, the nation’s largest and most complex employer. Her tenure focused on driving value through innovations that supported warfighters, reformed business operations, enhanced talent management, and improved service member and family resilience.

A board member and strategic advisor in the private sector, Hicks also holds appointments as the Council Distinguished Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and a Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s Kissinger Center for Global Affairs. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the MIT Corporation Political Science Department Visiting Committee. She is on the International Leadership Council of the Center for European Policy Analysis and also co-chairs the Atlantic Council’s ReForge Commission, focused on American industrial revitalization. She is the proud sponsor of the future Virginia-class submarine USS Baltimore (SSN-812)—a personal honor rooted in her family’s Navy and Marine Corps legacy.

Hicks earned her Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, her M.P.A. from the University of Maryland, and her bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College.

Leo Michel is Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Finnish Institute for International Affairs and Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. His previous government positions included: Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies; Director for NATO Policy and Director for Non-Nuclear Arms Control in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Deputy US Representative to the US-Russia Bilateral Consultative Commission as well as other government positions. Michel holds a M.A. from Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies and a B.A. from Princeton University.