Michael Carpenter
Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
Michael R. Carpenter earned an undergraduate degree in international relations from Stanford University and a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.
He has been a career officer with the United States Foreign Service. He was deputy director of the Office of Russian Affairs, a political-military officer in the Office of European Security and Political Affairs, and an advisor at the Office of Caucuses Affairs and Regional Conflicts. He has served in the U.S. embassies in Poland, Slovenia, and Barbados.
During President Obama’s administration, Carpenter was a special advisor on Europe and Russia for then-Vice President Biden. He served as director for Russia at the National Security Council and later served in the Pentagon as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia, and Conventional Arms Control.
He was nominated by President Biden to be the United States Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe with the rank of Ambassador. His nomination was confirmed by the Senate, and he submitted his credentials to the OSCE Secretary General in November 2021.
Carpenter speaks fluent Polish and Slovenia, as well as some German, French, and Czech.
In the News…
U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Michael Carpenter said, though the aid may not be exactly what Kyiv is hoping for, President Biden’s administration is seeking to provide “sustainable assistance“ to Ukraine as the war with Russia continues.
The ambassador said, “The Pentagon has been advising the Ukrainians on what they think is the most sustainable type of support that we can provide. And it has to do with the numbers of the equipment and artillery, munitions that we have available, and the pace at which we can continue to expand those sorts of munitions and hope for replacements. You have to factor in costs. The enemy certainly factors in costs.”
“We understand that for some countries, this means that heating costs are going to be higher this winter. But Ukrainian men, women, and children are being tortured and being killed,” Ambassador Carpenter continued. “The sacrifices that they’re making are orders of magnitude larger than the ones that we are making in our countries. We are trying to share the burden amongst ourselves so that it’s equally distributed.”
“The scale and scope of what we’re seeing is just so enormous that it’s going to require multiple different mechanisms and jurisdictions to get involved in order to ensure that there is some accountability for these horrific war crimes and what are quite likely crimes against humanity,” the ambassador said. “There’s going to be painstaking gathering of evidence and then preservation of that evidence and the building of the cases. And then there is the actual bringing of the cases and the prosecutions. It’s going to be a long, hard slog.”
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Ambassador Carpenter today? You can let him know at:
The Honorable Michael R. Carpenter
Ambassador to the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe
U.S. Department of State
2201 C St NW
Washington, DC 20520
