Celeste Wallander

Celeste Wallander is the current US Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, and an expert on Russia. She holds a PhD in political science from Yale University, and was a professor of government at Harvard University, before she transitioned to the realm of policy and real-world decision-making. She joined esteemed institutions such as the Council on Foreign Relations and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and was the director of the Russia and Eurasia Program. Wallander was president and CEO of the US-Russia Foundation and founded the Program on New Approaches to Russian Security and the Eurasian Strategy Project, and she was special assistant to the President and senior director for Russia and Eurasia on the National Security Council. In the Obama Administration she served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia.