Steven Pifer is a nonresident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, where he has worked on arms control, Russia and Ukraine. He has offered commentary regarding these issues on PBS, CNN, Fox News, BBC and National Public Radio, and his articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Interest, Financial Times, Moscow Times and Kyiv Post, among others. He is author of The Eagle and the Trident: U.S.-Ukraine Relations in Turbulent Times (Brookings, 2017) and co-author of The Opportunity: Next Steps in Reducing Nuclear Arms (Brookings, 2012).

A retired foreign service officer, Pifer’s more than 25 years with the State Department included assignments 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.