Nicolai N. Petro is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island. He is also a senior Washington Fellow at the Institute for Peace & Diplomacy (IPD), a North American foreign affairs think tank.
He earned his B.A. in history (1980), M.
A. in public administration (1982), and Ph.D.
in foreign affairs (1984) all from the University of Virginia. He founded the Center for Contemporary Russian Studies in 1987 at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.