Readiness

Dr. Ariane M. Tabatabai

Dr. Ariane Tabatabai is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Education and Training. In this role, Dr. Tabatabai serves as the principal senior authority on the development of Department of Defense policies related to military education and training across the Joint Force. Her responsibilities include professional military education, military and joint training policy, training capability modernization, military and joint exercises policy, and language programs.

Prior to this role, Dr. Tabatabai served as the Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict. She joined the Biden-Harris Administration as a Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Dr. Tabatabai held positions in think tanks and academia, including as the Director of Curriculum and a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Security Studies Program at the Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Associate Political Scientist at the Rand Corporation, Middle East Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Civilian Consultant at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Dr. Tabatabai holds a Ph.D. from King's College London and completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship and a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellowship at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. She is an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, a Council on Foreign Relations Term Member, and the author of two peer-reviewed books and a number of articles.