Celeste Wallander

Celeste Wallander is President and CEO of the U.S.-Russia Foundation. She served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russia/Central Asia on the National Security Council (2013-2017), as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia/Ukraine/Eurasia (2009 to July 2012), professor at American University (2009-2013), visiting professor at Georgetown University (2006-2008), Director for Russia/Eurasia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (2001-2006), Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (2000- 2001), and professor of Government at Harvard (1989-2000). Previously, she served as a visiting professor at Georgetown University (2006-2008), Director and Senior Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (2001-2006), Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. (2000-2001), and professor of Government at Harvard University (1989-2000). She is the founder of the Program on New Approaches to Russian Security and the Eurasian Strategy Project. Dr. Wallander’s scholarly and policy work has focused on security relations in Europe and Eurasia. She is an expert on Russian foreign and security policy, Eurasian security relations, security institutions, Eurasian military and defense issues, and conflict escalation and intervention. She is the author of over 75 scholarly and public interest publications on these and related topics, and has published books and articles on the sources of Russian foreign policy, German-Russian security relations, the economic bases of Ukrainian and Belarusian security policy, security and globalization, HIV/AIDS as a security issue, the role of NATO, and the geopolitics of energy among other issues. She has testified before Congress, lectures extensively in the U.S. and abroad, and has served as a media analyst. Dr. Wallander received her Ph.D. (1990), M.Phil.(1986) and M.A. (1985) degrees in political science from Yale University, and her B.A. (1983 – summa cum laude) in political science from Northwestern University. She has received fellowships and research grants from the National Science Foundation, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the National Council for Soviet and East European Research, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the MacArthur Foundation, Smith-Richardson Foundation, and the Mott Foundation. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Atlantic Council of the United States.