Dr. Evelyn N. Farkas is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia/Ukraine/Eurasia.
[1] Previously she was a senior fellow at the
American Security Project, where she focuses on stability and special operations, counterproliferation and U.S-Asia policy.
[2] In 2008, she served as
executive director of the congressionally mandated
Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, which published its report
World at Risk (
Random House/
Viking) in November 2008.
[3] From April 2001 to April 2008, she served as a professional staff member of the
Senate Armed Services Committee. Her issue areas included foreign and defense policy in Asia Pacific, Western Hemisphere, Special Operations Command (policy and budget oversight), foreign military assistance, peace and stability operations, the military effort to combat terrorism, counternarcotics programs, homeland defense, and export control policy. Prior to assuming that position she served for four years on the faculty of the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College,
Marine Corps University as
assistant professor and then
associate professor of
international relations. She served in
Bosnia for five months as a human rights officer for the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) during 1996, and as an election supervisor in 1997.
Dr. Farkas is a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations, International Institute for Security Studies, Women in International Security Studies, and on the
advisory board for the
Harold Rosenthal Fellowship in International Relations and the Aspen Institute Socrates Scholar Program. In 2005 she served on a Council of Foreign Relations task force chaired by
Samuel R. Berger and
Brent Scowcroft that produced a monograph
In the Wake of War: Improving U.S. Post-Conflict Capabilities. In 2009 she became a member of the
Center for National Policy's Future Forces advisory group.
[4] She is also an expert blogger for
National Journal.
[5]
Dr. Farkas' publications include journal articles and opinion pieces in
The Washington Post and
Los Angeles Times on issues including Balkan peace operations and military readiness. She is also the author of
Fractured States and U.S. Foreign Policy: Iraq, Ethiopia, and Bosnia in the 1990s (
Palgrave/
St. Martin's Press, 2003). While working on Capitol Hill, she was the subject of an article in
Roll Call newspaper on December 1, 2003: "
Valuable Lessons: Ex-Marine Corps Professor Faces Familiar Challenges on the Hill
Here’s What America Needs to Know About Trump and Russia - Evelyn Farkas
"We know from the most senior intelligence officials that the Russian government hacks and transfer of information to WikiLeaks were conducted at a minimum to cause Americans to lose faith in their political process, and at a maximum to increase the odds that Trump could win the election. And we should heed their words: As a close consumer of intelligence on Russia for three critical years, I know our intelligence on Russia, unlike that on North Korea, for example, is excellent.
Given Russia's capabilities and its recent patterns,
it is not at all far-fetched to ask whether Trump is indeed the “puppet” Secretary Clinton mockingly named him in the second presidential debate. Is he financially and politically beholden to Russians close to the government and to the Kremlin itself? If so, is he prepared to accommodate Putin’s interests? Should we expect a robust "reset," in the tense relationship between the two countries, perhaps one that even compromises U.S. interests, like the stability of its allies in Europe, and American values, like democracy and human rights?
There are signs the Trump campaign was involved in coordinating this release of hacked information—then-adviser Carter Page’s trips and meetings in Moscow, and Russian statements that they were in touch with the campaign. And of course, Trump publicly called on the Russian government to continue hacking Hillary Clinton’s computers during a televised campaign appearance. His campaign dismissed it as a joke; it's not clear everyone did. It may be too much to say that the Kremlin and Russian secret services put Trump on the path to seeking the presidency, but they certainly contributed to getting him there"
We know, per Donald Trump Jr., that Russia makes up a significant amount of the family business. What we don’t know is how much Russian money is involved, and what Russian money.
How did Trump get out of debt? To whom does he owe money? Who provides the collateral for his loans? Is he beholden to Russian oligarchs and banks who are under the thumb of the Kremlin and Russian security services?"