UNH Today

There are jobs and then there are Jobs. U.S. Army Col. Scott Dullea ’89 has one of the latter.  

His office window looks out at the West Wing of the White House. His boss is Susan Rice, President Barack Obama’s national security advisor.  As director of Russia for the U.S. National Security Council staff, Dullea briefs the president ahead of phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and routinely provides input on the former communist country and its policies.  

So, yes, Job with a capital J.  

An ROTC graduate who majored in Russian and German, Dullea was back on campus Nov. 20 to speak at the NH International Seminar lecture “Russia & the West, 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall,” along with Brian Greenley, deputy director of the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Russian Affairs.  

Dullea provided an overview of how the National Security Council works and addressed current relations with the U.S. and Russia amid the crisis in Ukraine over control of the Crimean Peninsula, the destabilization of the country and the problems the situation has caused.  

“We continue to call on Russia to fulfill its commitments to resolving the crisis in Ukraine,” Dullea says, adding that the president has spoken with Putin a number of times during the ongoing crisis. “Even when we are not talking directly to the Russians, our message is still the same.  We are trying to bring a peaceful resolution to the situation.”  

One of three directors for Russia, Dullea has been on the National Security Council staff since April. Before that, he was at the Pentagon, working on similar issues in the Russia/Ukraine/Eurasia office for the U.S. Department of Defense.  

In the Army, he is a foreign area officer, specializing in the countries of the former Soviet Union. He has served in Iraq and Afghanistan.  

“My studies at UNH led me down the path to my long and interesting Army career. I was already interested in international affairs then—not just foreign languages but the countries as well,” Dullea says. “That helped shape my future.   

“The Army assigned me to this job, but my colleagues from other government departments and I represent the White House in our daily work rather than our home agencies.”  

Regarding the current situation in Ukraine, he adds, “We always remind ourselves that we are in an important place in a historic moment in time. We remind ourselves of the responsibility that comes along with that.”  

Courtesy photo

Read more: NH International Seminar