Steven Pifer is an affiliate of Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation and a non-resident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution. His interests are nuclear arms control, Ukraine, Russia and European security.

A retired Foreign Service officer, Pifer’s assignments included deputy assistant secretary of state with responsibilities for Russia and Ukraine, ambassador to Ukraine, and special assistant to the president and senior director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia on the National Security Council.

He also served at the U.S. embassies in Warsaw, Moscow and London as well as with the U.S. delegation to the negotiation on intermediate-range nuclear forces in Geneva. A California native, he is a graduate of Stanford with a bachelor’s in economics.

Russia's most recent invasion of Ukraine has now entered its 11th month, and the Russian military clearly is failing to achieve the Kremlin's objectives.

Ambassador Pifer will cover the origins of the Russia-Ukraine war, its course to date and possible future developments; U.S. policy toward the war; and some longer-term implications for Ukraine, Russia, Europe and the United States.