Johan Bergenas

Note: This is the biography page of a former staff member, affiliate, etc., and may not be current.

Johan Bergenas is a Senior Associate and Director of the Partnerships in Security and Development program. One of Bergenas’ current primary focus is “natural security” – the interlinkages between environmental challenges and U.S. national and global security – as well as on technology and public-private sector partnerships. His background cuts across a wide range of transnational security challenges – from WMD proliferation, terrorism and transnational organized crime.

In 2014, Bergenas initiated Project Ngulia, a field initiative to build a new gold standard for natural resource protection. He has brought together a dozen public and private sector partners and technology providers on a pilot project in Kenya. Since 2015, Bergenas has also worked closely with a wide range of environmental and defense organizations to bridge the divide between these institutions on issues ranging from illegal fishing to technology capacity building in developing nations.

Bergenas’ work has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Politico, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy. Prior to joining Stimson, Bergenas worked for the Monterey Institute of International Studies and Oxfam America. He has also been a reporter and a freelance journalist for numerous publications, covering a wide range of international and U.S. domestic issues. He holds an honors M.A. degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and an honors B.A. degree from the University of Iowa.

Follow Johan on Twitter @johanbergenas

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