Ambassador Victoria Nuland currently serves as Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, making her the State Department’s highest-ranking career official. She was a Political Officer at the United States Embassy in Russia from 1991 until 1993 and built an enviable career of over three decades in the Foreign Services.
“Diplomacy is not only about government to government anymore, but also human to human,” she told The Washington International Diplomatic Academy. “What we try to do, and get other countries to do, is empower people.”
Born in 1961, Nuland studied Russian Literature, Political Science, and History at Brown University, earning her Bachelor of Arts in 1983.
Prior to her ambassadorship, Nuland was Senior Counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategic advisory and commercial diplomacy firm, and a Brookings Institution non-resident Senior Fellow.
Nuland was Chief of Staff to Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott during the Clinton Administration from 1993 to 1996. From 2003 to 2005, she served as the Principal Deputy Foreign Policy Adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney. Beginning in 2005, she was the first female ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), then became Special Envoy for Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, followed by the role of State Department Spokesperson. In 2013, she was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, where she managed diplomatic relations with 50 countries in Europe and Eurasia.
During her time as Assistant Secretary in the Obama administration, Nuland received criticism for pushing for stronger support for Ukraine’s pro-democracy movement and speaking out against Russian activities in the former Soviet Republic – which now seems quite prescient in light of Russia’s ongoing invasion. In a leaked phone conversation between Nuland and the U.S. ambassador in Kyiv at the time, she used a colorful four-letter expletive to dismiss the European Union.
Nevertheless, Nuland continued to receive trust and support from the top political leaders in both parties.
“My fundamental starting point is that everybody in these top jobs, whether Cheney or Clinton, has a single common thread, which is that they love their country, and fundamentally what they want is to do what’s best for America,” Nuland said to The Washington International Diplomatic Academy.