Brussels Forum Session: NATO at 75: Looking Ahead to the Washington Summit 

Celeste Wallander is assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs in the US Department of Defense’s Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy. She was previously special assistant to the president, senior director for Russia/Central Asia on the National Security Council, and the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia/Ukraine/Eurasia. Outside government, she served as president and CEO of the U.S. Russia Foundation, a professor at American University, a visiting professor at Georgetown University, director for Russia/Eurasia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relation, and a professor of government at Harvard University.  

Wallander is the author of more than 80 publications on European and Eurasian security issues with a focus on Russian foreign and defense strategy. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Council of the United States, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.  

Wallander holds a PhD and two master’s degrees from Yale University, and a bachelor’s degree (summa cum laude) from Northwestern University.