CNAS Welcomes Heli Hautala and Maria Snegovaya as Fellows to the Transatlantic Security Program

Washington, February 10, 2022—The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) is pleased to welcome Heli Hautala as a Visiting Fellow, and Dr. Maria Snegovaya as an Adjunct Senior Fellow to the Transatlantic Security Program at CNAS. Ms. Hautala’s work will focus on Northern European security and Europe's relations with Russia. Dr. Snegovaya’s work focuses on Russia’s domestic and foreign policy, as well as democratic backsliding in Eastern Europe.

“We are fortunate to have the expertise of two outstanding researchers and practitioners join the Transatlantic team during such a critical time in the region,” said CNAS Senior Fellow and Director of the Transatlantic Security Program Andrea Kendall-Taylor. “Their work will help inform our program’s analysis of Russia, its impact on European security, and what US and European policymakers must now do to reformulate a transatlantic approach to Russia. Regardless of what happens in Ukraine we need new thinking and we’re thrilled to have them here to do that as part of the CNAS team.”

Heli Hautala is a Finnish career diplomat who joined the Finnish Foreign Service in 2004. She has served several times at the Embassy of Finland in Moscow and has worked as NATO Team Leader at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. During her career Heli has also worked with trade policy, both at the Ministry and in Geneva. Heli earned her Master of Political Sciences from the Swedish-speaking Åbo Akademi University in Finland and a Master of Laws from the University of Toronto. Heli's appointment is provided by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, represented by the Embassy of Finland in Washington D.C.

Dr. Maria Snegovaya is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Science at Virginia Tech University, and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University. Her research results and analysis have appeared in policy and peer-reviewed journals, including West European Politics, Party Politics, Journal of Democracy, Post-Soviet Affairs, and the Washington Post‘s political science blog the Monkey Cage. Her research has been referenced in publications such as the New York Times, Bloomberg, the Economist, and Foreign Policy. Throughout her career she has collaborated with multiple U.S. research centers and think tanks, including the Brookings Institution, the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace among others. She received her doctorate from Columbia University.