Ambassador Victoria Nuland is the former assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. As assistant secretary she was responsible for diplomatic relations with fifty countries in Europe and Eurasia, as well as with NATO, the European Union, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Previously, Ambassador Nuland served as State Department spokesperson. Ambassador Nuland was special envoy for conventional armed forces in Europe from February 2010 until June 2011, and before that, she served on the faculty of the National War College. Ambassador Nuland was the eighteenth United States permanent representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) from 2005 to 2008. As NATO ambassador, she focused heavily on strengthening Allied support for the ISAF mission in Afghanistan, on NATO-Russia issues, and on the Alliance’s global partnerships and continued enlargement. A career Foreign Service officer, Ambassador Nuland was principal deputy national security advisor to the vice president from 2003 to 2005, and the US deputy permanent representative to NATO from 2000 until 2003. She also served as deputy to the ambassador-at-large for the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union, with primary responsibility for US policy toward Russia and the Caucasus countries. From 1993 to 1996, Ambassador Nuland was chief of staff to the deputy secretary of state. Earlier in her career, she covered Russian internal politics at the US Embassy in Moscow; served on the Soviet Desk in Washington; helped to open the first US Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; worked in the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs; and served in Guangzhou, China. She earned a BA from Brown University.