Lauren Van Metre

Dr. Van Metre (LinkedIn – X) is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, where she has written several issue briefs on the war and its impacts on Ukrainian politics and society, including The trip from Donbas: Ukraine’s Pressing Need to Defend its Veterans. She is also an adjunct professor at The Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, where she teaches on conflict analysis and prevention, and strategy and leadership in the Master’s program in International Policy and Practice.

Dr. Van Metre is the former Director for Peace, Climate, and Democratic Resilience at the National Democratic Institute.  She has also worked on major policy initiatives at the Pentagon, the State Department, and the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). Dr. Van Metre has published frequently on issues of peace, fragility and violence, including, most recently, False Promises:  The Authoritarian Development Models of China and Russia for the Atlantic Council; Youth, Social and Behavioral Change and Violent Extremism in Niger with USIP’s Resolve Network; and, Voices from the Frontlines of Democracy in Ukraine published in Just Security. 

Dr. Van Metre holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University’s School for Advanced International Studies and an M.A. in Russian and East European Studies from Georgetown University.