Samuel Charap

Photo of Samuel Charap
Senior Political Scientist
Washington Office

Education

Ph.D. in political science, University of Oxford; M.Phil. in Russian and East European studies, University of Oxford; B.A. in political science and Russian, Amherst College

Media Resources

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Overview

Samuel Charap is a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation. His research interests include the political economy and foreign policies of Russia and the former Soviet states; European and Eurasian regional security; and U.S.-Russia deterrence, strategic stability and arms control.

From November 2012 until April 2017, Charap was the senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Prior to joining the IISS, he served at the U.S. Department of State as senior advisor to the undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security and on the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff, covering Russia and Eurasia. From 2009 to 2011, Charap was director for Russia and Eurasia at the Center for American Progress.

Charap's book on the Ukraine crisis, Everyone Loses: The Ukraine Crisis and the Ruinous Contest for Post-Soviet Eurasia (co-authored with Timothy Colton), was published in January 2017. His articles have appeared in The Washington Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, Survival, Current History and several other journals.

Charap was a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Center and the International Center for Policy Studies (Kyiv), and a Fulbright Scholar at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He is fluent in Russian and proficient in Ukrainian. Charap holds a Ph.D. in political science and an M.Phil. in Russian and East European studies from the University of Oxford, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He received his B.A. in Russian and political science from Amherst College. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Research Focus

Previous Positions

Senior Fellow for Russia and Eurasia, IISS; Senior Advisor, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security; Member, Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff

Selected Publications

Samuel Charap and Timothy J. Colton, Everyone Loses: The Ukraine Crisis and the Ruinous Contest for Post-Soviet Eurasia, Routledge, 2017

Honors & Awards

  • Marshall Scholarship, Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission
  • Fulbright Scholarship, U.S. Department of State

Languages

Russian

Commentary

  • Russian President Vladimir Putin makes his annual New Year address to the nation in Moscow, Russia, December 31, 2019

    Why We Must Talk to Russia

    Compromise is the essence of diplomacy, the only way short of coercion, violence, and war of settling international disputes. Before we accept that no compromise with Russia is possible, we should first understand the cost of a new Cold War with Russia that would result.

    Jan 2, 2020 Atlantic Council

  • U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shake hands prior to their talks in Sochi, Russia, May 14, 2019, pU.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shake hands prior to their talks in Sochi, Russia, May 14, 2019

    Can Washington and Moscow Agree to Limit Political Interference?

    After his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in May, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia had proposed a mutual non-interference pledge. The concept of elaborating norms of non-interference on a mutual basis might be the best way to stabilize U.S.-Russian relations and prevent the damaging episodes of recent years from happening again.

    Jun 13, 2019 War on the Rocks

  • Map of Ukraine, photo by omersukrugoksu/Getty Images

    Book Review: Ukraine and the Art of Strategy by Lawrence Freedman

    The crisis in Ukraine has proved a watershed moment for Russia's relations with the West. In Ukraine and the Art of Strategy, Lawrence Freedman presents a brief history of the conflict and analyzes it in the context of strategic theory.

    Apr 16, 2019 Foreign Affairs

  • Syrian and Russian soldiers at a checkpoint near Wafideen camp in Damascus, Syria, March 2, 2018

    Time to Make a Deal on Syria

    U.S. leverage is much diminished by the Assad regime's recent gains but there are still opportunities for Washington and Russia to achieve a settlement that preserves some U.S. interests. These include maintaining the gains made against the Islamic State and constraining Iranian influence in Syria.

    Jul 10, 2018 Foreign Policy

  • Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) shakes hands with his Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Klimkin during talks on the crisis in eastern Ukraine, in Minsk, Belarus, November 29, 2016.

    The Ukraine Crisis: Why Everyone Loses

    The Ukraine conflict has left every major actor involved worse off than it was before, and a resolution seems as elusive as ever. An inclusive dialogue on the regional order could be the first step toward defusing the conflict.

    Apr 19, 2017 Russia Matters

Publications