Biographies

Dr. Evelyn N. Farkas is Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia/Ukraine/Eurasia. She served previously as Senior Advisor to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe/Commander, U.S. European Command, and as Special Advisor for the Secretary of Defense for the NATO Summit. Prior to that, she was a Senior Fellow at the American Security Project.

In 2008-2009, she served as Executive Director of the congressionally-mandated bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, which published its report World at Risk (Random House) on-time and under-budget in November 2008.

From April 2001 to April 2008, she served as a Professional Staff Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, conducting policy and budget oversight (for over $20 billion) of the Department of Defense policy office and military commands including the U.S. Pacific Command, Special Operations Command, Southern Command, Northern Command, and U.S. Forces Korea. Her issue areas included foreign and defense policy worldwide regarding special operations, combating terrorism, foreign military assistance, peace and stability operations, counternarcotics efforts, homeland defense, and export controls, and regionally regarding the Asia Pacific and Western Hemisphere.

Prior to assuming that position, for four years she was a professor of international relations at the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College, Marine Corps University. She served in Bosnia as a Human Rights Officer for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 1996, and as an Election Supervisor in 1997. In 2009, she was an election observer in Afghanistan.

Her publications include journal articles and opinion pieces in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Times, Defense News, and The Boston Globe, and on sites including The Daily Beast, Foreign Policy.com and Politico.com, as well as commentary on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, Air America’s Montel Williams Show, and Voice of America. She is also the author of “Fractured States and U.S. Foreign Policy: Iraq, Ethiopia, and Bosnia in the 1990s” (Palgrave/St. Martin’s Press, 2003 and 2008). Dr. Farkas obtained her MA and Ph.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She speaks fluent Hungarian and German, as well as rudimentary French, Spanish, Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, and Hindi. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a recipient of the Joint Meritorious Civilian Service Award.