Ionela Maria Ciolan
Romania
Ionela Maria Ciolan is a Research Fellow in the Europe in the World Programme, European Policy Centre think tank in Brussels. Here, she works mainly on NATO policies, NATO-EU relations, transatlantic relations, climate security, as well as EU Security and Defense Policy.
In addition, Ionela is a 2021 James S. Denton Transatlantic Fellow at Center for European Policy Analysis (Washington D.C.). She previously gained experience as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California-Berkeley, and through her work at CEPA think tank (Washington D.C.), European Parliament (Brussels) and the Centre for EU-Russia Studies, University of Tartu (Estonia).
Apart from her policy and academic work, for 9 years, she was the initiator and coordinator of the human rights activists’ movement of Amnesty International in Romania.
Ionela is a grantee of the OSCE and U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs Scholarship for Peace and Security (2019), a New Security Leader of the Warsaw Security Forum (2018), and a Professional Fellow of the U.S. Department of State (2015).
”Whoever is afraid of feminism, is afraid to admit and accept that, fundamentally, women are strong beings. In various societies, over centuries, political leaders have made use of many skills and tricks to keep women power under control. On the other hand, power comes with responsibility – always. Admitting that you are strong means taking responsibility for this power. Sometimes that overwhelms.”
