Dr. A. Wess Mitchell is a principal and co-founder at The Marathon Initiative, a non-partisan, non-profit research organization dedicated to the study of great-power competition. At Marathon, Mitchell’s work focuses on diplomacy, alliances and grand strategy.
From 2017 to 2019, Mitchell served as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. In this role, he was responsible for diplomatic relations with the 50 countries of Europe and Eurasia, as well as the institutions of NATO, the EU, and OSCE. At State Department, Mitchell played a principal role in formulating Europe strategy in support of the 2017 National Security Strategy and 2018 National Defense Strategy, led the Interagency in building instruments to counter Russian and Chinese influence in Europe, and spearheaded new diplomatic initiatives for Central Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Western Balkans.
Mitchell’s articles and interviews have appeared in major publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, Washington Post, American Interest, National Interest and National Review. He is the author of three books, including Unquiet Frontier: Rising Rivals, Vulnerable Allies and the Crisis of American Power (with Jakub J. Grygiel) and The Grand Strategy of the Habsburg Empire. His fourth book, Great Power Diplomacy: Skillful Statecraft Across the Ages, will be published by Princeton University Press in 2025.
Prior to joining the State Department, Mitchell served as President and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), which he co-founded in 2005 with Larry Hirsch. In 2020, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg appointed Mitchell to co-chair, with former German Minister of Defense Thomas de Maizière, the NATO 2030 Reflection Group, a ten-member consultative body charged with providing recommendations on the future of NATO. Mitchell was a member of the national security personnel team for Governor Mitt Romney’s transition effort during the 2012 Presidential election.
Mitchell serves in a number of board and advisory roles, including as vice chairman of the board of directors at CEPA, senior advisor at the U.S. Institute of Peace, and Non-Resident Fellow in the Applied History Project at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center. He is a member of the International Security and Foreign Policy Grants Advisory Committee at the Smith Richardson Foundation, the International Advisory Council at Cambridge University’s Centre for Geopolitics and the Advisory Council at the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue University. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mitchell holds a doctorate in political science from the Otto Suhr Institut für Politikwissenschaft at Freie Universität in Berlin, a master’s degree in German and European Studies from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, and a bachelor’s degree in history from Texas Tech University. He received a 2020 prize from the Stanton Foundation for writing in Applied History (with Charles Ingrao) and the 2004 Hopper Award at Georgetown University. He is the recipient of the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary, and the Gold Medal of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. He is a sixth-generation Texan.
