Dr. A. Wess Mitchell took the oath of office as Assistant Secretary of State on October 12, 2017, before Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. As Assistant Secretary he is responsible for diplomatic relations with 50 countries in Europe and Eurasia, and with NATO, the EU and the OSCE.

Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
Term of Appointment: 10/2017 to present

Prior to joining the State Department, Dr. Mitchell spent twelve years at the Center for European Policy Analysis, a think-tank dedicated to the study of Central Europe. A co-founder of CEPA, he served as President and CEO from 2009 to 2017 and Director of Research from 2006 to 2009. Dr. Mitchell played an instrumental role in CEPA’s growth to become a leading transatlantic think-tank with offices in Washington, DC and Warsaw, Poland.

From 2013 to 2016, Dr. Mitchell chaired the Europe Working Group for the John Hay Initiative. He also served on advisory boards for several U.S. and European institutes, including the Zbigniew Brzezinski Institute for Geostrategy, the Slovak Atlantic Commission, the Prague Center for Transatlantic Relations, Atlantic Initiative Berlin and the Alexander Hamilton Society.

Dr. Mitchell is the author of numerous articles and reports on transatlantic relations and international security. His work has been translated into ten languages and appeared in major publications such as the Washington Post, Washington Times, International Herald Tribune, American Interest, National Interest, Orbis and Internationale Politik. He is the co-author of two books on geopolitics, including most recently Unquiet Frontier: Vulnerable Allies, Rising Rivals and the Crisis of American Power (with Jakub J. Grygiel). His third book will be published in 2018.

Dr. Mitchell holds: a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Otto Suhr Institut für Politikwissenschaft at Freie Universität in Berlin, Germany; a M.A. from the Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, where he was awarded the 2004 Hopper Award; a certificate in EU Studies from the American Consortium on European Union Studies; and a B.A. in History from Texas Tech University. He speaks German and has studied Dutch and Czech.