Alina Polyakova is a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Foreign Policy program’s Center on the United States and Europe. She specializes in European politics, far-right populism and nationalism, and Russian foreign policy. Prior to joining Brookings, she served as director of research and senior fellow for Europe and Eurasia at the Atlantic Council. She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a Swiss National Science Foundation senior research fellow.

“Don’t feel constrained and confined by the path you think you’re on. There are more options one can pursue even if it doesn’t seem that way at the time.”