Victoria J. Taylor is the director of the Iraq Initiative in the Atlantic Council’s Middle East program. A national security leader with over two decades of experience in the Middle East and Europe, she led large interagency teams and advanced US economic and national security interests as a deputy assistant secretary, as a deputy chief of mission, and at the White House National Security Council.  

Prior to joining the Council, Taylor served as a career senior foreign service officer with the rank of Minister Counselor.  She served most recently as deputy assistant secretary for Iraq and Iran in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, where she advised senior State Department leaders on Iraq and Iran in the aftermath of the Gaza conflict. She was the director for North African affairs from 2021 to 2023 and the deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Croatia from 2018 to 2021. She has served as the deputy director for Western Europe in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs and as the director for Balkans, Caucasus, and Black Sea affairs at the National Security Council, where she advanced Montenegro’s NATO accession and strengthened US defense cooperation with Georgia. Other Washington assignments include positions in the Office of Iranian Affairs, on the Turkey Desk in the Office of Southern European Affairs, and as an international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Taylor has served overseas at US embassies in Georgia, Tunisia, and Pakistan, as well as at the US consulate in Lahore, Pakistan. 

Taylor hails from Springfield, Missouri. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations and diplomatic history from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in development studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She speaks French, Mandarin, Russian, and Urdu. She served as chair of the American International School of Zagreb’s Board of Trustees from 2019 to 2021. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She has been featured on BBC, CNN, Al Sharqiya, Iran International, and other international media outlets.