Peter Almquist

Peter Almquist retired from the Department of State in 2018 after 25 years of government service. He received his PhD in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he focused on Soviet defense industry. He joined the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) in 1993, working on cooperative US-Russian efforts to prevent the “brain drain” of nuclear scientists following the collapse of the Soviet Union and on defense conversion issues with China.

After ACDA’s merger into the State Department in 1999, Almquist worked on nuclear and strategic arms control and security issues related to Asia. From 2006 until 2018, he specialized in nuclear nonproliferation issues, mainly in Northeast Asia. His research interests include the role of the individual – as a decisionmaker or influencer – in proliferation-related decisions.