Ambassador Stefano Stefanini is a nonresident senior fellow with the Transatlantic Security Initiative in the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.

He has been diplomatic adviser to the President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, Italian permanent representative at NATO and deputy chief of mission at the Italian Embassy in Washington. He had previously served at the United Nations in New York and Moscow. He began his diplomatic career as consul in Perth, Western Australia.

Throughout his career, Ambassador Stefanini has developed a substantial expertise in transatlantic affairs, international security, defense capabilities, and the defense industry, as well as in Western and European relations with Russia.

Posted in Moscow in the early ’90s, Ambassador Stefanini experienced the economic and political transition from the Soviet Union to the Russian Federation. He then deepened his understanding of US-European relations while at the Embassy of Italy in Washington from 1993 to 1998 as a counselor on political and military affairs, where he followed and advised on US foreign policy and specialized in the Balkans, European Security and NATO, and US-Russia relations.

As ambassador of Italy to NATO from 2007 to 2010, Ambassador Stefanini contributed to the drafting of NATO’s New Strategic Concept, the shaping of NATO’s “comprehensive approach” in Afghanistan, the enlargement and partnership policy, the military structure review, and the advancement of missile defense. He was actively involved in the NATO-Russia Council.

From December 2010 to July 2013, Ambassador Stefanini served as a diplomatic adviser to the President of Italy, providing analysis of international and security affairs and spearheading presidential visits to Beijing, Jerusalem, Washington, Warsaw, Paris, Berlin, New York, and other strategically important cities.

Ambassador Stefanini is Vice Chairman of OTO Melara, a Finmeccanica defense company and a consultant to the Podesta Group, Washington, DC.

Ambassador Stefanini earned his law degree from the University of Pisa and his master’s degree from the Institute for International Political Studies in Milan. He served as lieutenant in the alpine corps of the Italian army. He is a recipient of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and has received honors from several foreign governments, including France, Brazil, Germany, and South Korea.