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The cofounders of the Berlin Forum on Global Politics (BFoGP) first met while doctoral candidates at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the Freie Universität Berlin, in Berlin, Germany.

Listed in alphabetical order, the cofounders are:

 Daniel Cardoso (Brazil | Portugal)

Daniel holds a PhD from Freie Universität Berlin (Germany) and Fudan University (Shanghai, China). Between 2010 and 2013, he was part of an international research team that analyzed the role of Macau in China’s relations with the Portuguese Speaking Countries, hosted by the Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra (Portugal). Daniel holds a BA in International Relations (2006), from the University of Coimbra (Portugal), with a semester spent in Pontíficia Universidade Católica in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). In 2009, he concluded his MA in International Relations, also at the University of Coimbra.

For more information on Daniel’s activities, please check his LinkedIn, Academia and Twitter profiles.                                                                                   

 Philani Mthembu (South Africa)

Philani is Executive Director at the Institute for Global Dialogue, an independent South African-based foreign policy think tank dedicated to the analysis of, and dialogue on the evolving international political and economic environment and the role of Africa and South Africa. Prior to joining the Institute for Global Dialogue, he pursued a joint doctoral programme (Dr. rer. pol.) with the Graduate School of Global Politics, Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), and the School of International Studies at Renmin University, Beijing (China). The focus of his dissertation was on the rise of emerging powers as sources of development cooperation in Africa. The study was essentially a comparative analysis of the determinants of their development cooperation in Africa using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), for which he was awarded an overall grade of Magna Cum Laude.

He is an alumnus of the Managing Global Governance Programme established by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, designed for young professionals from emerging economies.  He received his MA in International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where he headed the Academic Development Programme for first year students and was elected as an independent candidate to the Student Representative Council.

For more information on Philani’s activities, please check his LinkedIn, Academia, and Twitter profiles.

 Marc Venhaus (Germany)

Marc holds a doctorate from the Graduate School for Global Politics, Freie Universität Berlin (Germany) in cooperation with Fudan University Shanghai (PR China), where he did research on the global political economy with a special focus on state-market relations, financial and monetary policies, and the history of economic thought and the diversity of developmental strategies. He holds a MA in International Political Economy (University of York) as well as a MA in Politics, Economics & History (University of Münster), and is a trained salesman in whole and foreign trade (IHK-certified). Moreover, Marc is a cosmopolitan, critical observer, traveller, networker, and bon vivant.

For more information on Marc’s activities, please check his LinkedIn, Academia, and Twitter profiles.

Miguelángel Verde Garrido (United States of America | Venezuela)

Miguel holds a doctorate (Dr. rer. pol.) from the Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), where he researched how state and corporate control of information and communications technologies impact the political agency of civil society. He has a MA in Political Science and Political Philosophy from Kyoto University (Japan), where he studied after being granted a scholarship by the Ministry of Education of Japan, and a BA in Philosophy from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (Caracas, Venezuela). Miguel’s research and peer review publications have received awards such as an Annual Paper Prize and an Early Career Researcher Award from the international Surveillance Studies Network (SSN).

For more information on Miguel’s activities, please check his LinkedIn, Academia and Twitter profiles.