Roderick Kefferpütz is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center and a senior analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), where he focuses on Germany’s China policy, Sino-Russian relations, and China as a driving force of global-order changes. As head of the MERICS Lab, he regularly facilitates forecasting workshops identifying potential China-related risks.

Prior to joining MERICS, Kefferpütz served as a speechwriter and deputy head of the policy planning and strategy unit at the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg. In this capacity he advised the state premier on international affairs and industrial policy.

Before that he worked in various roles over ten years in Brussels, including as chief of staff to Member of European Parliament Reinhard Bütikofer, chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China. Kefferpütz began his professional career with research positions at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Moscow, Warsaw, and Brussels and is currently a member of the foundation’s Transatlantic/Europe Advisory Board.

He holds an MPhil in Russian and Eurasian studies from the University of Oxford and a BA in international affairs from the American University in Paris. In addition to his native German and Dutch, he speaks English, French and Russian.