Stephen Sestanovich is the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of International Affairs and an Affiliate at the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. His research interests include Soviet and East European studies, strategic planning and international studies, and foreign policy.
Sestanovich has served as Ambassador-at-Large and Special Advisor to the Secretary of State on the New Independent States (NIS). He also served as the principal spokesman for the administration and the Department of State before Congress and the public on policy toward the NIS. Sestanovich has held positions at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the National Security Council, and the Department of State, and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Sestanovich received a B.A. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University. He also completed a program of graduate study at Columbia University.