steven pifer

Steven Pifer

  • Affiliate, CISAC
  • Affiliate, The Europe Center

Biography

Steven Pifer is an affiliate of the Center for International Security and Cooperation as well as a non-resident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution.  He was a William J. Perry Fellow at the center from 2018-2022 and a fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin from January-May 2021.

Pifer’s research focuses on nuclear arms control, Ukraine, Russia and European security. He has offered commentary on these issues on National Public Radio, PBS NewsHour, CNN and BBC, and his articles have been published in a wide variety of outlets.  He is the author of The Eagle and the Trident: U.S.-Ukraine Relations in Turbulent Times (Brookings Institution Press, 2017), and co-author of The Opportunity: Next Steps in Reducing Nuclear Arms (Brookings Institution Press, 2012).

A retired Foreign Service officer, Pifer’s 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, ambassador to Ukraine, and special assistant to the president and senior director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia on the National Security Council.  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.  From 2000 to 2001, he was a visiting scholar at Stanford’s Institute for International Studies, and he was a resident scholar at the Brookings Institution from 2008 to 2017.

Pifer is a 1976 graduate of Stanford University with a bachelor’s in economics.

 

publications

Commentary
March 2023

Three ways the US should respond to Russia’s suspension of New START

Author(s)
Three ways the US should respond to Russia’s suspension of New START
Commentary
January 2023

How the war in Ukraine hinders US-Russian nuclear arms control

Author(s)
How the war in Ukraine hinders US-Russian nuclear arms control
Commentary
December 2022

The Russia-Ukraine war and its ramifications for Russia

Author(s)
The Russia-Ukraine war and its ramifications for Russia

In The News

President of Russia, Vladimir Putin
Commentary

Putin's Failures to Deliver

On each of the three areas where Putin held out the promise of something better to the Russian people-economic growth, political stability, geopolitical status-he has delivered failure.
Putin's Failures to Deliver
zelenskyy nato
Commentary

Why the NATO Summit Was Good for Ukraine

Ukraine today is closer to membership, which Alliance members seem to view as all but inevitable.
Why the NATO Summit Was Good for Ukraine
Crew onboard a 'Terminator' tank support fighting vehicle during a Victory Day military parade in Red Square marking the 75th anniversary of the victory in World War II, on June 24, 2020 in Moscow, Russia.
News

Understanding Prigozhin’s Mutiny and What Is — and Isn’t — Happening in Russia

Scholars at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies offer insight on what Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mutiny may signal about Russia, Putin’s power, and the war in Ukraine.
Understanding Prigozhin’s Mutiny and What Is — and Isn’t — Happening in Russia
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