Nashville: With Friends Like These… The Way Forward for Transatlantic Trade and Security

The Nashville Warburg Chapter and the World Affairs Council in Nashville will host a discussion and luncheon with Dr. Daniel S. Hamilton, President of the Transatlantic Leadership Network, and Stephanie Harwood, Director for Trade Policy at the Representative of German Industry and Trade – RGIT, and moderated by Paul Gallagher, Director of the ACG’s Nashville Eric M. Warburg Chapter.

Paul Gallagher (Moderator) is the Nashville Warburg Chapter Director of The American Council on Germany.  He has had a long career in financial services, most recently as Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Thread Bank, with previous roles at Pinnacle Financial Partners, PayPal, Silicon Valley Bank, Wells Fargo, The Boston Consulting Group, and IBM.  He was a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow in 1993-1994 and lived in Cologne, Berlin, and Munich for three years.  Mr. Gallagher holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a BA in Political Science from Brown University.

Dr. Daniel S. Hamilton is a leading expert on transatlantic relations, European affairs, and international security. He is President of the Transatlantic Leadership Network and a Senior Nonresident Fellow at both the Brookings Institution and the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He previously founded and directed the SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations and served as the Richard von Weizsäcker Professor and Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Professor at SAIS. Dr. Hamilton has held numerous senior positions at the U.S. Department of State, including Deputy Assistant Secretary for European Affairs, where he oversaw NATO, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), transatlantic security, and Nordic-Baltic and Balkan affairs. He also served as U.S. Special Coordinator for Southeast European Stabilization, Associate Director of the Policy Planning Staff for two U.S. Secretaries of State, Director for Policy in the Bureau of European Affairs, and Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Embassy in Germany.

Dr. Hamilton’s extensive engagement with Germany includes serving as the inaugural Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow of the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin and as the first Robert Bosch Foundation Senior Diplomatic Fellow in the German Foreign Office. In 2012, he served on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Futures Advisory Group. A frequent adviser, speaker, and commentator on European and transatlantic affairs, Dr. Hamilton regularly testifies before the U.S. Congress and European parliaments. He has authored more than 100 books and articles addressing European, transatlantic, and international affairs. Recent publications include The Transatlantic Economy annual series, including the 2026 edition, The Transatlantic Community and China, Paradigm Lost? Europe and the Challenges of a New World, and The Arctic and World Order. His contributions to international and transatlantic relations have earned him numerous honors, including Germany’s Cross of the Federal Order of Merit, France’s Ordre des Palmes Académiques, Sweden’s Royal Order of the Polar Star, and Poland’s Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit. Dr. Hamilton holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. with distinction from Johns Hopkins SAIS, an honorary doctorate from Concordia College, and an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Stephanie Harwood is Director for trade policy at RGIT. Her professional background combines project and program management in the German-American nonprofit and corporate sectors. At the same time, her international upbringing has given her a strong awareness and appreciation for both cultures. Ms. Harwood previously worked for the German grocery chain Lidl US, supporting its U.S. expansion in several roles across real estate, procurement, and legal departments. She received her master’s degree in European Studies from the University of Bath, England, and Humboldt University in Berlin. She completed her bachelor’s degree in international relations at the University of Denver, Colorado.