The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University welcomes you to a fireside chat on transatlantic affairs. The conversation will focus on the shared economic, political, and security priorities of the United States and the EU. The participants will include Ambassador Filip Vanden Bulcke, Consul General of Belgium in New York; Dirk Wouters, former Belgian Ambassador to the United States; and Professor Jan Wouters of the Institute for International Law at KU Leuven. The event will be chaired by Professor John Shattuck. Refreshments will be served.

	Filip Vanden Bulcke is a distinguished career diplomat with over two decades of experience in the Belgian Foreign Ministry and the European External Action Service. Currently serving as the Consul General of Belgium in New York (covering 23 states), he brings a wealth of expertise to his role. Prior to this, Mr. Vanden Bulcke served as Ambassador of Belgium to Jordan and Iraq from 2019 to 2022. Notably, he also held the position of Diplomatic Advisor to Prime Minister Alexander De Croo from 2016 to 2019. His diplomatic journey includes significant roles at the Belgian Mission to the UN (2008-2012) and the EU Delegation to the UN (2013-2016) in New York, where his focus on political affairs and crisis management demonstrated his proficiency in multilateral relations. Earlier diplomatic assignments included postings at the Belgian Embassy in Rabat (2003-2004), the Belgian Embassy in Ankara (2004-2008), and the role of Deputy Head of the Eastern Europe Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2012-2013). Before venturing into diplomacy, Mr. Vanden Bulcke practiced law at Van Bael & Bellis International Law Firm in Brussels. He holds an LL.M from the University of London (UK) and a Masters in Law from the University of Leuven (Belgium), with a year at the University of Salamanca (Spain) as an Erasmus student. Fluent in Dutch, French, English, and Spanish, he also possesses basic knowledge of Russian and German, along with some notions of Turkish and Arabic. Beyond his professional pursuits, Mr. Vanden Bulcke is an avid runner and cyclist. Alongside his wife, he enjoys hiking and exploring nature, showcasing a strong interest in literature, history, and modern art. Connect with him on LinkedIn to delve deeper into his diplomatic journey and interests.
	Dirk Wouters obtained a Master of Science in Economics at the London School of Economics in 1979, after having completed his studies in Law and Economics at the Universities of Antwerp and Leuven. A year later, he joined the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he held bilateral and multilateral assignments. He began in the consular department and the disarmament department before being sent to the Belgian Embassy in Rome (1983), where he dealt with economic issues and new technologies. He returned to Brussels in 1986 to take up several important functions in European Affairs, including within the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the EU. He was also directly involved in several negotiations on revision of the European Treaties (Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice, and Lisbon). He received a second assignment in Rome where he handled political and economic issues (1992-1995). After his stay as Deputy Permanent Representative in New York at the United Nations (1995-2000) and his involvement in the establishment of the International Criminal Court (1998), he was appointed coordinator of the Belgian Presidency of the European Union in 2001 and headed for some years the Department of European Coordination and Integration in the Foreign Ministry in Brussels. He assisted Jean Luc Dehaene as Vice President of the Convention on the future of the European Union. He remained Permanent Representative of Belgium to the Political and Security Committee of the EU (2003-2006), where the EU’s common foreign and security policy was initially shaped under the leadership of J. Solana. In 2009 he was called to the office of Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as his diplomatic advisor and Sherpa. For two years he was an active Chief of Staff to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (2010-2011), being involved in a successful EU-Presidency of his country (2010), as well as in key Foreign Policy decisions on Afghanistan and Libya. He served as Permanent Representative of Belgium to the European Union from 2011 to 2016. Afterwards, he became the Belgian Ambassador to the United States of America (2016-2020). Currently, Wouters is Advisor to the Belgian Royal Family, organizing trade missions abroad. He also created a new America-Europe Fund at the University of Leuven, where he is an adjunct professor on trans-Atlantic relations and sits on the Board of Governors.
	Jan Wouters is Full Professor of International Law and International Organizations, Jean Monnet Chair ad personam, Director of the Institute for International Law and of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies (a Jean Monnet and KU Leuven Centre of Excellence), and Administrator of the America Europe Fund at KU Leuven. He is Adjunct Professor at Columbia University (New York) and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (Bruges) and Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II). A Member of the Belgian Royal Academy and Of Counsel at Omega Law, he has published widely on international and EU law, international organizations, global governance, corporate and financial law. He recently coordinated two large European projects, FRAME (“Fostering Human Rights Among European External and Internal Policies”, 2013-17) and RECONNECT (“Reconnecting Europe with its Citizens through Democracy and Rule of Law”, 2018-22). He advises and trains regularly international organizations and governments and is often asked to comment on international events in national and international media. He has been President of the United Nations Association Flanders-Belgium for 13 years.