An American national security practitioner, foreign policy expert, and former defense official who serves as Executive Director of the McCain Institute at Arizona State University. Her government and public service career spans appointments across the executive and legislative branches.
From 2012 to 2015, she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia, the Balkans, Caucasus, and Conventional Arms Control. She previously served as Senior Advisor to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) and Special Advisor to the Secretary of Defense for the NATO Summit, Executive Director of the Congressional Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, and Professional Staff Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee covering Special Operations Command, Asia-Pacific policy, counterterrorism, and export controls.
In the private sector and think tank community, she was President of Farkas Global Strategies, a national security contributor for NBC/MSNBC, and a Senior Fellow at both the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Atlantic Council. Her academic background includes serving as Professor of International Relations at the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College and working overseas in Bosnia with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
She holds a Bachelor's degree from Franklin & Marshall College, as well as a Master's degree and Ph.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She is the author of Fractured States and U.S. Foreign Policy: Iraq, Ethiopia, and Bosnia in the 1990s and serves on the Council on Foreign Relations and the Board of Directors for the Institute for Indo-Pacific Security.