Fiona Hill, Brookings scholar, to join National Security Council

Washington, D.C. — Fiona Hill, director of the Center on the United States and Europe and a senior fellow in Foreign Policy, has joined the National Security Council staff as deputy assistant to the President and senior director for European and Russian Affairs.

Hill is a prominent expert on European and Eurasian affairs with extensive policy experience and scholarship on issues related to Russia, the transatlantic relationship, the post-Soviet states, regional conflicts, energy, and U.S. foreign policy. She is co-author, with Clifford Gaddy, of the highly-regarded examination of Russian President Vladimir Putin, “Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin” (Brookings Institution Press, 2015). Hill is also the author of numerous scholarly and policy-oriented publications on Russia’s foreign policy and strategy, U.S.-European relations, the European Union and its neighborhood, and the geopolitics of energy, among other issues. She has provided expert testimony before Congress, lectured across the United States and abroad, and regularly served as a commentator in the media.

“It’s an important part of Brookings’s legacy and ongoing mission for our scholars to answer the call of public service,” said Brookings President Strobe Talbott. “Fiona’s knowledge, judgment, and previous experience in government make her a superb choice for an important post dealing with a critical set of challenges and opportunities.”

From 2006 to 2009, she served as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the U.S. National Intelligence Council. Prior to joining Brookings in 2000, Hill was director of strategic planning at the Eurasia Foundation in Washington, D.C. From 1991 to 1999, she held a number of positions directing technical assistance and research projects at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, including associate director of the Strengthening Democratic Institutions Project, director of the Project on Ethnic Conflict in the Former Soviet Union, and coordinator of the Trilateral Study on Japanese-Russian-U.S. Relations.

“We are proud to have Fiona join the Trump Administration to take on this critical post at the NSC,” said Brookings Vice President and Director of Foreign Policy Bruce Jones. “Fiona is a renowned and experienced authority on Russia, its leadership, and its foreign policy decision making. Her keen insight, intellectual integrity, and deep knowledge—built through decades of conducting rigorous, fact-based analysis—will serve the NSC and our country well.”

Fiona Hill will assume her new post effective immediately, taking a leave of absence from Brookings.

About the Foreign Policy Program

The Foreign Policy program at Brookings conducts nonpartisan, independent research that addresses the most pressing foreign policy issues of our times. Our work informs the public debate and provides analysis and understanding of the dynamics of world affairs and the challenges they pose to the international community. We seek to shape policies and institutions in the United States and abroad that promote sustainable peace, security, and prosperity around the world.