WASHINGTON (November 14, 2012) — The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) announces the appointment of Dr. Celeste A. Wallander as a non-resident transatlantic fellow focusing on Russia and its neighborhood.

Wallander, an associate professor American University’s School of International Service, is the former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, a position she held from May 2009 to July 2012 and in which she was the principal advisor on the region to the secretary of defense.

As part of GMF’s Foreign Policy Program, Wallander will work particularly on Russia, the South Caucasus, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia’s relationship in Asia, and Eastern European energy issues.

“Celeste’s entire career has been devoted to better understanding Russia, a critical actor in the world and in transatlantic relations,” said GMF President Craig Kennedy. “Drawing on her experience in both academia and government, she will add a new dimension to GMF’s work on Russia and its region.”

Prior to her work at the Pentagon, Wallander has been a visiting professor at Georgetown (2006-08), director of the Russia and Eurasia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (2001-06), a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (2000-01), and a professor of government at Harvard University (1989-2000).

Wallander is the founder of the Program on New Approaches to Russian Security and the Eurasian Strategy Project. Her 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 has authored more than 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 United States and abroad, and has served as a media analyst.

Wallander received her Ph.D., M.Phil., and M.A. degrees in political science from Yale University, and her bachelor’s 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.

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The German Marshall Fund of the United States strengthens transatlantic cooperation on regional, national, and global challenges and opportunities in the spirit of the Marshall Plan. Founded in 1972 through a gift from Germany as a permanent memorial to Marshall Plan assistance, GMF maintains a strong presence on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition to its headquarters in Washington, DC, GMF has seven offices in Europe: Berlin, Paris, Brussels, Belgrade, Ankara, Bucharest, and Warsaw. GMF also has smaller representations in Bratislava, Turin, and Stockholm.