Steven Pifer is a senior fellow at the Brookings Center on the United States and Europe and director of the Brookings Arms Control Initiative. He focuses on arms control, Russia and Ukraine. He has offered commentary regarding Russia, Ukraine and arms control issues on CNN, Fox News, CNBC, BBC, National Public Radio and VOA, and his articles have appeared in the Washington Post, International Herald Tribune and Boston Globe, among others.

A retired Foreign Service Officer, his more than 25 years with the State Department focused on U.S. relations with the former Soviet Union and Europe, as well as arms control and security issues. He served as deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs with responsibilities for Russia and Ukraine (2001-2004), U.S. ambassador to Ukraine (1998-2000), and special assistant to the president and senior director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia on the National Security Council (1996-1997). In addition to Ukraine, he served at the U.S. embassies in Warsaw, Moscow and London as well as with the U.S. delegation to the negotiation on intermediate-range nuclear forces in Geneva.

Ambassador Pifer’s recent publications include “Reversing the Decline: An Agenda for U.S.-Russian Relations in 2009,” Brookings paper (January 2009); “Ukraine’s Geopolitical Choice, 2009,” Eurasian Geography and Economics (July 2009); “After START, Hurdles Ahead,” Current History, (October 2009); “Resetting U.S.-Russian Leadership on Nuclear Arms Reduction and Nonproliferation,” with Joseph Cirincione and Clifford Gaddy, Brookings Arms Control Series Paper #1 (January 2010); and “New START: Good News for U.S. Security,” Arms Control Today (May 2010).