Michael Carpenter is the senior director of the Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a former deputy assistant secretary of defense in the Pentagon for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia and has served as foreign policy advisor to the Vice President of the United States and as Director for Russia for the National Security Council. Carpenter has also served abroad in the U.S. Embassies in Poland, Slovenia, and Barbados. He holds a master’s and a PhD in political science from the University of California at Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford University. He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, Bloomberg, BBC, and other outlets, and his work has been published in Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, The Hill, Defense One, and other media outlets. Carpenter is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center and serves on the Jamestown Foundation’s board of directors.