Speaker Bio

Athanasios G. Platias is Professor Emeritus of Strategy at the University of Piraeus. He is also the President of the Council of International Relations-Greece, an Athens based think tank.

He received a degree in Public Law and Political Science (with excellence) from the Law Faculty of the University of Athens. He also received an M.A and a Ph.D in International Relations from the Department of Government at Cornell University.

He has been a Ford Foundation Fellow at the Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University, a Research Fellow at the Peace Studies Program, Cornell University; MacArthur Fellow in International Peace and Security at the Program for Science, Technology and International Security, MIT and the Center for International Affairs, Harvard University.

Professor Platias taught  at the Department of International and European Studies, Panteion University of Political and Social Sciences and at the Department of International and European, University of Piraeus.

Professor Platias held several senior advisory positions in the public and private sector in the last 35 years. He also held several senior academic positions such as Dean of the School of Economics, Business and International Studies, Chairman of the Department of International and European Studies, Director of the Graduate Program in International and European studies and member of the Governing Council of the University of Piraeus. 

Professor Platias is the author of numerous books and articles. His research and teaching focus on five principal areas: Grand Strategy, Geopolitics and Geoeconomics, Regional Security  (with emphasis on South Eastern Europe and Eastern Mediterranean)  and  Leadership.  He is the co-author  of Thucydides on Strategy: Grand Strategies in the Peloponnessian War and Their Relevance Today (N.Y.: Columbia University Press, 2010). His forthcoming book on the Art of Strategy: 50 Maxims for War, Politics and Business (Hurst Publishers/Oxford University Press) will be released in 2025.