Leslie Lebl

Leslie S. Lebl is a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council of the United States and Principal of Lebl Associates. A writer, lecturer and consultant on political, security and military matters, she is a former Foreign Service Officer with particular expertise in European political and defense issues, Balkan peacekeeping and Russian politics and economy.

Ms. Lebl’s publications include a monograph about advancing U.S. interests with the European Union, published by the Atlantic Council pursuant to a grant from the Smith Richardson Foundation; analyses of European defense policy for the Cato Institute and of various aspects of U.S.-European relations for Orbis; U.S.-EU cooperation in combating terrorism in Policy Review; and U.S.-German security ties in EuroFuture, as well as articles in The Weekly Standard and The Hartford Courant.

During and after her 24-year career in the State Department, Ms. Lebl has spoken on a variety of foreign policy subjects at Wilton Park, the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London, the NATO Winter Seminar in Moscow, the NATO School in Oberammergau, the College of Bruges, the Leader Development and Education for Sustained Peace Course at the Naval Postgraduate School, and the Central European University in Budapest. Her topics have included transatlantic relations, European security issues, radical Islam in Europe, peacekeeping in the Balkans, civil-military cooperation in crisis management operations, and the role of the European Union in the Balkans.

In the Foreign Service, Ms. Lebl served as Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels. Prior to that, she was Political Advisor to the Commander of Stabilization Forces (SFOR) in Bosnia-Herzegovina, first in the American sector in Tuzla and then at SFOR headquarters in Sarajevo. Other assignments included Russia, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York, Bolivia, Germany and Poland, as well as a year as diplomat-in-residence at Yale University. She speaks French, German, Russian, Polish and Spanish.

Ms. Lebl is a fellow of the World Affairs Council of Connecticut and a member of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and Women in International Security.

A graduate of Swarthmore College (B.A. in history, 1972), Ms. Lebl received an M.A. in foreign affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in 1979. She currently lives with her husband, Giora M. Lebl, in Woodbury, Connecticut.