Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky is Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s JFK Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She brings over 30 years of government and international experience across senior levels of diplomacy, business, and defense.
From 2001-2009, she was Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs and established and led the U.S.-India, U.S.-China, and U.S.-Brazil Global Issues Fora. She also served as the President’s Envoy to Northern Ireland (2007-2009) and received the Secretary of State’s highest honor the Distinguished Service Medal for her contribution to the historic devolution of power in Belfast. Other previous appointments include: NSC Director of European and Soviet Affairs, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Defense Policy Board, the Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board, and Chair of EXIM Bank’s Council on China Competition. Dobriansky was also Senior Vice President and Global Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs at Thomson Reuters and held the Distinguished National Security Chair at the U.S. Naval Academy.
From 1997-2001, she was Senior Vice President and Director of the CFR Washington Office and the first George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Dobriansky received a B.S.F.S. summa cum laude from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Soviet political/military affairs from Harvard University.
