As an analyst for Asian foreign and security policy, regional conflicts, disarmament on the Korean peninsula as well as Chinese development, foreign and domestic policy, Bernt makes his expertise and consulting services available to various German and international government agencies, parliaments, research and political foundations. He is well connected in East and Southeast Asia and has been organizing various Track II dialogue formats since 2003, including research, civil society, government, religion, the military and business. He has been following China’s engagement in West Asia and its increasing role in resolving regional conflicts since 2010. 

Previously, Bernt worked as Country Director of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in the Myanmar country office in Yangon. Before that, he was head of the Asia program at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin and the Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP) in Stockholm, Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), and Research Associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin and Research Fellow at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy (IFSH) in Hamburg. 

Bernt studied sociology, Chinese, international history and international relations at the University of Hamburg, the London School of Economics and the Beijing Language and Culture University. As a guest researcher, he worked at the East China Normal University in Shanghai and the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, among others. 

Bernt comments on current challenges and trends in German and international media. 

Focus & Topics: China’s foreign and security policy, including its engagement in the ‘global South’; nuclear disarmament and peace on the Korean Peninsula; conflicts and development in Myanmar; regionalism, military dynamics and conflicts in the Indo-Pacific regions; conflict transformations; mediation and multisectoral dialogue; challenges in the transformation of conflict economies 

berger[at]carpo-bonn.org 

Selected Publications:

(February 2019): Gipfeltreffen in Hanoi. Auf dem Weg zu einer Roadmap für die koreanische Halbinsel, DGAPstandpunkt 5. Available online.  

(30 July 2018): ‚Frieden durch Pragmatismus‘, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung. Available online.  

(September 2017): A Standoff Turned Standstill. Solving the North Korea Conflict Requires New Thinking and a Different Tool Kit, DGAPstandpunkt 10. Available online. 

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