Debra Cagan is a senior advisor at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, providing expertise on security and energy issues. She is also a distinguished fellow at the Transatlantic Leadership Network and senior advisory board member for StrategEast, a nonprofit dedicated to developing high-tech education, training, and jobs in Eurasia and the Caucasus. She is a regular opinion contributor to multiple publications and television and radio media on national-security issues. A retired career senior US State Department and Defense Department official working from the Reagan to Trump administrations, Cagan served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Coalition, Peacekeeping, Humanitarian, and Disaster Relief; Senior Director for European, Russian, and Eurasian security issues; special advisor for strategic and nuclear policy; political and diplomatic advisor to senior US and NATO military officials, including the chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, several combatant commanders, and US and Allied commanders deployed in operations.

While completing post-graduate work at the University of Chicago towards her doctorate, Cagan was named the first woman fellow for the prestigious Armed Forces and Society Consortium. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Iowa.