Ambassador Kurt Volker is a U.S. foreign and national security policy expert with 35 years of experience across government, academia, and the private sector. He served as U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations from 2017 to 2019 and as U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 2 July 2008 to 17 May 2009. From July 2005 to June 2008, he was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, overseeing 78 overseas posts, 300 domestic employees, and a $400 million budget.
Volker began his career as an intelligence analyst at the CIA in 1986, joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1988, and left the State Department in 2009 as a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, with 25 years focused on European policy under five U.S. administrations. He also served at the National Security Council, in the Private Office of NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson, and on Senator John McCain’s staff (1997–1998).
He is President and Founder of Alliance Strategic Advisors, LLC, Senior International Advisor at BGR Group, and served as founding Executive Director of the McCain Institute (2012–2019). Since June 2020, he has been a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis and remains a Senior Advisor at the Atlantic Council. Volker earned a BA from Temple University (1984) and an MA from the Elliott School at George Washington University (1986) and speaks Hungarian, Swedish, French, some Spanish, and is studying Georgian.