Steven Pifer

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

In The News

Man smiling
Q&As

The U.S. is giving Ukraine weapons and political support, but not troops

The U.S. and its partners have sent weapons to Ukraine. They've provided political and moral support. But if Russia invades, Ukraine's army looks to be largely on its own against a stronger force.
cover link The U.S. is giving Ukraine weapons and political support, but not troops
Man smiling
Q&As

Kremlin’s unwillingness to recognize Ukraine as a sovereign state has resulted in major strategic failure for Russia, Stanford scholar says

As Russia increases its military presence along the Ukrainian border, Stanford scholar Steven Pifer discusses what Russia hopes to achieve and why its policies toward Ukraine are backfiring.
cover link Kremlin’s unwillingness to recognize Ukraine as a sovereign state has resulted in major strategic failure for Russia, Stanford scholar says