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John Sitilides      

Geopolitical & Government Affairs Specialist; Business & Investment Strategies Expert; State Department Consultant

John Sitilides is Principal at Trilogy Advisors LLC in Washington, D.C., specializing in U.S. government relations, geopolitical risk, and international affairs. Delivering exclusive geopolitical risk reports, webcasts, and related products and services to institutional capital market and retail clients, he is a professional speaker at corporate, investor, and industry conferences, and before government, military and intelligence community audiences, on geopolitical risk management and the business impacts of international security policies. He explores the complex geopolitical and geo-economic decisions that impact markets in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and worldwide, helping corporate executives, investment managers and civic audiences better understand, anticipate, and mitigate risk.

Under a U.S. government contract since 2006, Sitilides is the Southern Europe Regional Coordinator at the Foreign Service Institute, the State Department's professional development and diplomacy academy for American foreign policy professionals. He was Board Chairman of the Woodrow Wilson Center Southeast Europe Project from 2005-2011, following seven years as Executive Director of the Western Policy Center, an international relations institute specializing in U.S., NATO and EU interests in southeastern Europe and the Middle East, until he negotiated its 2004 merger with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

He has testified before Congress and is a frequent national security commentator on U.S. and international media such as Bloomberg News, CNN, FOX News, CNN International, Newsmax and NewsNation, and has interviewed or cited in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times, Politico, National Public Radio, Euromoney, Asia Times, Institutional Investor, South China Morning Post and other leading print and digital media.

His domestic client portfolio includes industry leaders in real estate development, home construction and agribusiness, along with aviation and emerging technology companies, with a specialization in environmental regulatory reform and private property rights protection. He launched his career in the U.S. Senate and on a series of successful political campaigns.

Sitilides serves on the Executive Committee and Board of Trustees of Leadership 100, a national Orthodox Christian foundation. He served on the Board of Directors of 3doo, Inc., a VR/AR media technology company; the Board of Directors of International Orthodox Christian Charities, a global humanitarian organization; the Board of Directors of Biovest International, developing personalized cancer immunotherapies; and the Board of Governors of the Advanced Imaging Society, promoting the global motion picture industry’s arts and technologies.

He is a member of the Association of International Risk Intelligence Professionals, the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, the Columbia University Club of Washington, D.C., the Empire State Forum, and the Association of Former Senate Aides. Sitilides holds a Master’s Degree in International and Public Affairs from Columbia University. His wife is an attorney and businesswoman, and they have four sons.

Speech Topics


Washington and the World: The New Geopolitics of Great Power Competition

The global economy, long based upon a rules-based trade system, is undergoing profound and fundamentally transformative shifts. Russia’s war against Ukraine is upending Europe’s security architecture, as the EU scrambles to escape its hydrocarbon dependence on Moscow, NATO seeks to prevent alliance fracturing, and Germany and the United Kingdom plan for energy rationing and possible recession. U.S.-China relations are more tense than ever over Taiwan, trade, technology, and human rights, as China seeks to dominate Asia, manage its commercial relations, and challenge U.S. global leadership, while Washington seeks closer ties with India, Japan, and Indo-Pacific powers for regional counterbalance. Beijing is emerging from a zero-COVID policy that unsettled global supply chains and thwarted economic growth. Iran’s potential nuclear weapons breakout is destabilizing the Middle East and its global oil and gas supply network. The global impact of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is re-shaping counter-terrorism operations and may modify rare earths processing for renewable energy and other advanced technology sectors. Food shortages, energy scarcity, cybersecurity, and climate policy are increasingly shaping international decision-making.

Washington and the World: The New Geopolitics of Great Power Rivalry

Geopolitics, Geo-Economics, and Great Power Threats to Global Supply Chains

The Big Picture: A Geopolitical and Geo-Economic Outlook

China, Russia, and America: Geopolitics & Geo-Economics in the Decade Ahead

The Global Economy

The global economy, for decades based upon a rules-based trade system, is undergoing profound and fundamentally transformative shifts. China seeks to dominate Asia, manage its commercial relations, and challenge U.S. global leadership. Russia is upending Europe’s security architecture and fracturing the European Union. Iran’s nuclear weapons breakout is destabilizing the Middle East and its global oil and gas supply network. Energy scarcity, food shortages, cybersecurity, and climate policy are increasingly shaping international decision-making. Amid the most challenging international landscape since of the end of the Cold War thirty years ago, John Sitilides’ powerful keynote presentation delivers valuable insights, clear-eyed intelligence, and thoughtful understanding of current and future geopolitical and geo-economic trends in the near-term and over the horizon. Against the backdrop of a visually dynamic slide deck, he simplifies complex foreign policy and international security trends and developments to concisely deliver the most valuable knowledge, information, and open-source intelligence, to help leadership audiences better understand, anticipate, and mitigate geopolitical risk in today’s disrupted industry, finance, and diplomacy landscape.

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Washington and the World: The New Geopolitics of Great Power Rivalry

Russia and NATO are contesting for European security dominance in the aftermath of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, as the EU debates the future of its hydrocarbon dependence on Moscow. U.S.-China relations are more tense than ever over Taiwan, trade, and human rights, as Washington seeks closer ties with India, Japan, Australia, and Indo-Pacific powers for regional counterbalance. Beijing’s zero-COVID policy further unsettles global supply chains and economic growth. Middle East oil and natural gas supply chains face severe disruption and weapons proliferation, as Iran pursues nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to threaten its Arab neighbors, Israel, and the entire region. Germany’s newly muscular defense posture may face serious resistance from France and other leading EU countries. The global impact of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan continues to reverberate with profound consequences for U.S. international stature, counter-terrorism operations, and rare earths processing for renewable energy and other advanced technology sectors. Cybersecurity, infrastructure resilience, and climate policy are increasingly shaping international decision-making. As a result of these mounting challenges, the global economy is experiencing profound and fundamentally transformative shifts.

Sitilides's updated risk intelligence presentation – “Washington and the World: The New Geopolitics of Great Power Rivalry” – simplifies these complex geopolitical risk trends and developments to concisely deliver the most valuable knowledge and information to audiences.

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News


Washington Times: "Vortex of Turmoil, Vacuum of Power"
At the core of NATO’s southeastern flank and the nexus of the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Europe, the eastern Mediterranean region a half decade ago was relatively serene. Today, the transformation of the complex political and geostrategic environment of the broader Mediterranean region, whose regular problems were generally manageable, has been stunning.
CNN: "Greece awaits as deadline looms"
Live television interview on Greece, with its credibility at stake, awaiting its looming Eurozone deadline.
CNN: "Greece awaits Europe's bailout verdict"
Live television interview on the Greek government's formal request for a third international bailout to help pay its debts.
Fox News: "Eye-Popping Proposed EPA Regulations"
Live television interview on the impact of expanding federal regulations on private property rights across the United States.
The Guardian: "Refugee bottleneck in Greece leads to warning of humanitarian crisis"
“In this time of compounded humanitarian and security crises, Greece is being pummelled by its geography,” said John Sitilides, a geopolitical strategist in Washington DC. Trapped in a geopolitical vice and with the country reeling from its longest recession in post-war history, Greece’s social fabric could easily be torn apart. “The opportunity for nativists such as Golden Dawn to further exacerbate social and economic tensions for political gain is alarmingly significant,” Sitilides said, referring to the neo-fascist party that is Greece’s third biggest political force.
International Business Times: "During War In Gaza, Israel Gets Ammunitions From U.S. Weapons Stockpile"
Pentagon officials confirmed the transfer of grenades and mortar rounds on Thursday, just two days after the U.S. government issued Israel with a strong rebuke for its shelling of a United Nations school resulting in the death of 16 civilians. Letting Israel access a vast reserve of U.S.-supplied ammunitions “sends a very strong message to Hamas,” said John Sitilides, Government affairs and international relations specialist and former chairman of the Southeast Europe Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. According to Sitilides, the strategy was the brainchild of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, while he served as a Major General in the IDF. “He advised the United States that in the event of a war in the Persian Gulf, Israel would be the best geostrategic location to store excess ammunition,” said Sitilides. The obvious advantages would be they could supply ammunition to bases in Saudi Arabia in just a few days rather than the 10 it would take from Egypt or the 22 it would take from Oman or Somalia.
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Wall Street Journal: "Greek, Turkish Cypriot Leaders Agree to Resume Reunification Talks"
The draft declaration that is expected to emerge in coming days represents months of back-channel efforts by the U.S. State Department, which wants to see a solution to the Cyprus problem as a bulwark against the wider unrest in the Middle East. "Lately, we have been seeing the greatest amount of diplomatic energy expended on Cyprus that we have seen in the last decade," said John Sitilides, a government relations specialist and consultant under contract to the State Department, advising on U.S. diplomacy in Greece and Cyprus. "And this is all aligned to events in the region, especially with the energy reserves at stake, the financial crisis in Cyprus, and the state of turmoil in the wider region."
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