Dr. Olaf Theiler, Marshall Center Graduate of the Month, September 2008
The Marshall Center has named Dr. Olaf Theiler as Graduate of the Month for September 2008.
Dr. Olaf Theiler is a historian and political scientist who works for the German Armed Forces. He earned a master’s degree in History-Science from the Humboldt-University of Berlin in 1994 and a doctoral degree on NATO’s reform process since 1990 from the Free University of Berlin in 2003, where he also worked as a researcher in a project on institutional change from 1995 to 1997.
At the Academy of the German Armed Forces for Information and Communication he served as lecturer on international security studies from 1998 to 2003 and as the head of the Information Section in the Academic Staff from 2003 to 2007. His research activities focus on American Foreign Policy, Transatlantic Relations, and NATO and European Security Policy.
He has published several articles and studies on these issues, including Marshall Center Occasional Paper No. 17, dated February 2008. In the summer of 2005 he participated in the Executive Program in Advanced Security Studies here.
Since June 2007 he has worked as a national specialist sent by the German Ministry of Defense to NATO’s Operations Division in the International Staff of NATO HQ in Brussels, Belgium.
Reflecting on his experience at the Marshall Center, Dr. Theiler emphasized that, “the contact and open, as well as frank, exchange of views with participants from Eastern European, Caucasian and Central Asian countries, whom I would normally never have had the chance to meet, along with gaining experience in international security studies through field studies and dialogue with experts from different national and institutional backgrounds, greatly enhanced my knowledge and understanding of regional cultures and ways of thinking.
“I deem the Marshall Center to be an invaluable contribution to Transatlantic and internal European relations, providing not only knowledge and understanding, but also very important personal contacts and networks,” he said. “This is helpful not only for personal careers but also for the development of a Europe whole and free, as envisioned by the founders of NATO and the EU.”
Beginning with March 2007, the Marshall Center Graduate Support Office has featured a Marshall Center Graduate of the Month. The purpose of this initiative is to feature Marshall Center alumni who are playing an active role in furthering the ideals of the Marshall Center in creating a more stable security environment by advancing democratic institutions and relationships; promoting active, peaceful security cooperation; and enhancing enduring partnerships among the nations of North America, Europe, Eurasia, and beyond.
