Expertise: Russian foreign policy, Russian political and economic development, US-Russian relations, foreign policies of the states of the Former Soviet Union, role of the UN and international organizations

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Senior Fellow

Toby Trister Gati focuses on political, economic and trade developments in Russia, the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union, and Central and Eastern Europe. She also provides assessments of various politically sensitive regions of the world, as well as analyses of the workings of international political and economic institutions.

As special assistant to the president and senior director for Russia, Ukraine and the Eurasian States at the National Security Council in the White House in 1993, Mrs. Gati helped develop and implement U.S. policy towards Russia during the first Clinton administration. She was responsible for preparations for the April 1993 Vancouver Summit, passage of the first Clinton administration assistance package, and the establishment of the U.S.-Russian Joint Commission on Economic and Technical Cooperation. She has also worked closely with political leaders in the NIS during this difficult transition period.

Mrs. Gati served the president and the vice president as co-chair of the Policy Steering Group, the Clinton administration's chief policy-making body on all aspects of U.S.-Russia and U.S.-NIS relations. During her tenure, the NSC began to focus greater attention on the political and economic transformations underway in the energy-rich regions of Central Asia and the Caucasus.

As assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research from November 1993 to May 1997, Mrs. Gati provided the secretary of state with essential information on all key foreign policy questions. She was closely involved in decisions at the highest level as a member of the intelligence community's top decision-making bodies, including the National Foreign Intelligence Board (NFIB), which reviews all national intelligence estimates before presentation to the president.

Mrs. Gati was awarded the State Department's Distinguished Honor Award, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal and the Defense Intelligence Agency's Defense Intelligence Director's Award. She is also the recipient of the 1997 Theodore Roosevelt Freedom Award from the Prairie Institute for Economic Growth & Freedom.

Before joining the government, Mrs. Gati served as senior vice president for policy studies at the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) in New York City, where she directed the Association's research and policy analysis on international political, economic and security issues, as well as on United Nations and multilateral affairs.

Mrs. Gati has lectured and published on U.S.-Russia relations, American foreign policy, and the work of the United Nations and other international organizations. Her recent publications include:

• “Diversification for Growth: What the Russian Economy Needs,” The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, October 2003
• ”The Political Dynamic” (with Tapio Christiansen), in Russian-Eurasian Renaissance? U.S. Trade and Investment in Russia and Eurasia, Jan H. Kalicki and Eugene K. Lawson, eds. (Stanford Business Books, 2003)
• “Stepping Out: Russia in the Global Marketplace,” (with Ambassador Jim Collins) Akin Gump and the Transformation of the Russian Legal Landscape, September 2003
• “Dealing with the Russians,” A Symposium of Views, The International Economy, Summer 2003
• “Changing Priorities in a Post-Saddam World: An Interview with Toby Gati,” Washington Profile News Agency, June 18, 2003
• “Money and Terrorism: Challenges for Financial Institutions” (with Rob Joyce), ABANA Review (Journal of the Arab Bankers Association of North America), Spring 2003
• "Don't Write Off the United Nations," Legal Times, April 14, 2003
• “Summit Goals, Score Cards & Future Prospects for U.S.-Russian Relations,” Intellibridge Analysis, May 22, 2002.

Mrs. Gati has consulted with the Ford Foundation and private business about Russian foreign and economic policies, and has appeared on major network news programs, as well as on CNN International's "Insight" and "Headline News," National Public Radio and PBS' "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." She also has testified before the various national security committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies and serves on the international advisory board of the Moscow School of Political Studies.

Mrs. Gati received her B.A. from Pennsylvania State University. She received her M.A. in Russian language and literature, her M.I.A. in international affairs and a Harriman Institute Certificate in Russian studies from Columbia University. She is fluent in Russian.

Selected Commentary:

• "Russians Suing Bank of New York," The New York Sun, Apr 2008
• "Diversification for Growth: What the Russian Economy Needs," The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, Oct 2003
• "Stepping Out: Russia in the Global Marketplace," (with Ambassador Jim Collins), Akin Gump and the Transformation of the Russian Legal Landscape, Sep 2003
• "The Political Dynamic," (with Tapio Christiansen), U.S. Trade and Investment in Russia and Eurasia, 2003