Richard Sokolsky

Richard Sokolsky is a nonresident senior fellow in Carnegie’s Russia and Eurasia Program. His work focuses on U.S. policy toward Russia in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.

Prior to joining Carnegie, Sokolsky was a member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Office from 2005 to 2015. In this role, he prepared analyses and policy recommendations for the secretary of state on a broad range of foreign policy issues including U.S. policy on the Middle East and South Asia, nuclear weapons and nonproliferation, conflict prevention and post-conflict stabilization and reconstruction, and foreign assistance.

Sokolsky is a 36-year veteran of the State Department and became a member of the career Senior Executive Service in 1991. He served at State in several positions including director of the offices of Strategic Policy and Negotiations, Policy Analysis, and Defense Relations and Security Assistance in the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. He has been a visiting senior fellow at the RAND Corporation and at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University.