Laura Updegrove is a nonresident senior fellow in the GeoStrategy Initiative in the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. She is a national security executive with over sixteen years of experience serving in senior roles across government. Her experience spans the Department of Defense (DoD), the White House, the State Department, and the US Senate.

Most recently, Updegrove served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for South and Southeast Asia. She led a thirty-person team responsible for setting and
implementing defense policy in the Indo-Pacific. She regularly
represented the United States in negotiations with foreign counterparts,
including ministers of defense, to advance cooperation on information sharing,
US force posture, delivering key capabilities, and building new multilateral
partnerships. She engaged extensively across DoD and with defense industry to
assess cutting-edge defense technologies—including unmanned systems—to
match partner requirements with US capabilities.

Previously, Updegrove served as the senior advisor to the principal deputy
national security advisor to the president at the White House. In this role, she managed the government-wide “Deputies Committee” process, regularly convening deputy cabinet secretaries to address the key national security challenges ranging from the war in Ukraine to strategic competition with China.

From 2021 to 2023, she served as the chief of staff to the counselor to the secretary of state. There, she supported the secretary’s key initiatives, including participating in diplomatic efforts with Southeast Asia to address the civil war in Myanmar and developing negotiating strategies to reduce tensions in the Balkans.

Updegrove also served as a senior staff member to Senator Jeff
Merkley (D-OR). As his senior foreign policy advisor leading his work on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee and Appropriations Subcommittee for State and
Foreign Operations, Updegrove gained deep expertise on both the
authorizing and appropriating functions of Congress. After being elevated to the
role of the senator’s legislative director, she managed the senator’s legislative staff and engaged in bipartisan efforts to advance legislative priorities across the national
security and domestic domains.

Updegrove previously served in both the office of Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy at the DoD. Updegrove received her BA with honors in global studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the recipient of the Department of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, the Department of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service, and the Department of State Superior Honor Award. She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.