Clark Banach, PhD

Dr. Clark Banach is an interdisciplinary public policy researcher with private sector experience in finance and consulting. He earned his PhD in Economics from Freie Universität Berlin and his MBA in International Business from Canisius. In addition to his academic career, he has 15 years of strategic management experience, including 10 years in consulting, during which he provided oversight to over 150 projects. His areas of analysis include international trade, public policy, economic security, and maritime shipping.

He is also Program Director at Aletheia Research Institution where he recently completed a project that identifies the extent of Chinese influence at deepwater container terminals and the effects of these activities on world trade flows. These findings are outlined in a report titled How the BRI is Shaping Global Trade and What to Expect from the Initiative in its Second Decade and the working paper titled Chinese Port Investments and Their Effects on Bilateral Trade. His prior databases, Building BLOCS and Stepping Stones: Combined Data for International Economic and Policy Analysis and A Database for Investigating Foreign Direct Investment and Regional Trade, have been employed by DG Trade and APEC for research and reports on trade and investment facilitation. 

Publications

Pédussel Wu, J., Silva Neira, I., Goulas, S., Banach, C. (2024). Building BLOCS and Stepping Stones: Combined Data for International Economic and Policy Analysis. IPE Berlin Working Papers 2024

Banach, C. Gunter, J., (2023). How the BRI is Shaping Global Trade and What to Expect from the Initiative in its Second Decade. MERICS China Global Competition Tracker 4/2023

Banach, C., Pédussel Wu, J., (2023). Chinese Port Investments and Their Effects on Bilateral Trade. In: New Chinese Initiatives for a Changing Global Security. Institute of International Politics and Economics, pp.219 - 238

Banach, C. (2016). What’s in a Game? A Case Study of Gamification in a Knowledge Based Firm, In: Spielräume: Facetten von Gamification in Unternehmen und Weiterbildung. EMF-Institut, pp.133-147

Banach, C. (2016). Making Models Work for You (The Necessity of Change Management: Why Our Traditional Communication and Organizational Structures Are Becoming Obsolete) In: Digital Darwinism. Springer, pp. 242–248.

Awards

• MERICS Futures Fellowship awarded by Mercator Foundation
• DAAD STIBET Award for Doctoral Studies for research at the Institute for East European Studies
• DAAD STIBET Award for Doctoral Studies for research at the JFK Institute for North American Studies
• GSNAS Doctoral Fellowship awarded by the German Research Foundation's Excellence Initiative