Areas of Expertise
- Security and defense policy
- NATO
- GSVP
- Germany’s Zeitenwende
- Armaments policy
- Geopolitics
Short Bio
Dr. Patrick Keller, born in 1978, has been co-director of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) since October 1, 2026. He is also the head of its Center for Security and Defense.
Previously, he served as head of policy and communications at BDLI, the German Aerospace Industries Association. Before that, he spent six years at the German Federal Ministry of Defense, including as chief speechwriter to Ministers Dr. Ursula von der Leyen and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. He also served as vice president of the Federal Academy for Security Policy (BAKS).
From 2008 to 2018, Keller was coordinator for foreign and security policy at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Prior to that, he was a research associate at the Institute of Political Science and the North American Studies Program at the University of Bonn.
He studied political science in Bonn and at Georgetown University, and received his doctorate (Dr. phil.) from the University of Bonn. He has been a fellow at German and US think tanks and a lecturer at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen.
Keller has delivered more than 300 lectures at think tanks, government institutions, and universities in over 20 countries. His essays on international security and transatlantic affairs have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Survival, Internationale Politik, and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
He is married, the father of three children, lives in Berlin, and enjoys the works of Peter Handke and American wrestling.
Languages
German, English
[Last updated: February 2026]
