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United States Institute of Peace

A. Wess Mitchell, Ph.D.

Senior Advisor

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Dr. A. Wess Mitchell is a senior advisor for USIP’s Center for Russia and Europe.

He previously served as assistant secretary for Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Department of State, where he was responsible for U.S. relations with the countries of NATO, the European Union, Russia, the Caucasus and Turkey. His areas of expertise include international security, transatlantic relations, regional conflict management and strategic stability and arms control.

Mitchell holds a doctorate in political science from the Otto Suhr Institut für Politikwissenschaft at Freie Universität Berlin, a master’s degree from the Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, and a bachelor’s degree in history from Texas Tech University. He is the author of three books as well as numerous articles and reports on U.S. foreign policy.

Publications By Wess

What Sweden’s Accession Shows About NATO’s Future

What Sweden’s Accession Shows About NATO’s Future

Wednesday, April 17, 2024

By: A. Wess Mitchell, Ph.D.

As NATO celebrates its 75th anniversary, it has cause to celebrate Sweden’s addition as the 32nd member of the alliance. The Nordic country’s accession came after a grueling, two-year fight with NATO member states Turkey and Hungary, both of which extracted concessions in exchange for allowing the process to move forward. Sweden’s entry will improve NATO’s capabilities and greatly reduce the vulnerability of its northeastern flank. But the difficulties it took to reach this point raise serious questions about the alliance’s ability to cohere around shared political and strategic objectives in a time of crisis.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

The U.S. Needs All the Friends It Can Get

The U.S. Needs All the Friends It Can Get

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

By: A. Wess Mitchell, Ph.D.

The United States needs as many friends as it can get in the intensifying struggle with China, Russia and Iran. But to build large and effective coalitions, it will need to be flexible. At the global level, where competition encompasses security, technology and commerce, it makes sense to appeal to universal principles rooted in the Western traditions of individual liberty and representative government. But at the regional level, especially in those places where most of the United States’ natural partners are not democracies, we will need to be pragmatic and appeal to the shared interests of preserving the independence and sovereignty of individual states against revisionist encroachments.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

Why We Should Back Ukraine’s Diplomatic Long Game

Why We Should Back Ukraine’s Diplomatic Long Game

Tuesday, August 22, 2023

By: A. Wess Mitchell, Ph.D.

A number of commentators have criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s latest peace summit in Jeddah for failing to produce tangible deliverables. What these criticisms miss is that Ukraine is playing a game of diplomatic attrition aimed at countering Russia’s central objective: international acquiescence to its violent seizure of a neighbor’s territory. The United States should support Ukraine’s efforts, most immediately by seeking a U.N.-sanctioned conference on the sidelines of next month's U.N. General Assembly session.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy;  Peace Processes

NATO: Keep Urging Turkey to Admit Sweden, Finland as Allies

NATO: Keep Urging Turkey to Admit Sweden, Finland as Allies

Friday, February 24, 2023

By: A. Wess Mitchell, Ph.D.

Nearly nine months after Sweden and Finland applied to join the NATO alliance, Turkey continues to block their accessions. Turkey’s obstruction persists even though the applicants have now met many of its demands, and in spite of sustained high-level engagement from the United States and NATO’s secretary general. Turkish presidential elections, scheduled for May, make a breakthrough unlikely anytime soon. But Sweden’s response to the recent Turkish earthquakes could provide an unexpected opportunity for renewed progress. It is in the U.S. interest, and that of Europe’s future peace and stability, to keep up the effort. The window between now and NATO’s July summit in Vilnius will be crucial for patient diplomacy, backed by pressure, to break the deadlock.

Type: Analysis

Global Policy

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