David Shimer

David Shimer is an American journalist, author, and foreign policy analyst. He served on the White House National Security Council (NSC) during the Biden administration.

Early life

David Shimer
Nationality	American
Education	Yale University (BA, MA) Magdalen College, Oxford (DPhil)
Notable work	Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference (2020)

Shimer is from Chappaqua, New York.^[1] He graduated from Yale University with bachelor's and master's degrees in history.^[2][1] While at Yale, he was the editor in chief of the Yale Daily News.^[1] He was also a member of Mace and Chain.^[3]

In 2018, he received a Marshall Scholarship and attended the University of Oxford, where he received a doctorate in international relations.^[1][4]

Shimer was an associate fellow at Yale University.^[2]

Career

In 2017 and 2018, Shimer wrote guest articles for The New York Times from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United Kingdom.^[5][6][7][8] In June 2020, he published the book Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference (Knopf), a global history of foreign election interference.^[9] The New York Times, in its review of Rigged, said the book was "extraordinary and gripping" and had "the insight of a superb work of history."^[10] Rigged was also positively reviewed by NPR and The Guardian.^[11][12]

He was a global fellow with the Wilson Center from August 1, 2020 to July 31, 2023, completing the project A Historical Approach to Countering Foreign Electoral Interference and Assessing Russian Foreign Policy.^[2][4]

During the Biden administration, Shimer served on the United States National Security Council from 2021 to 2025, including as the director for Eastern Europe and Ukraine and as director for Russian Affairs.^[13] Shimer was closely involved in the U.S. response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including efforts to release U.S. intelligence on Russia's plans prior to the invasion and to deliver U.S. military equipment to Ukraine.^[14]

In January 2025, Shimer argued in the The Wall Street Journal that the United States should continue providing aid to the Ukrainian military.^[15]

Selected publications

Articles

• "Germany Encounters Surge in Crime by the Far Right". The New York Times, June 28, 2017
• "Oxford Roiled by Invitation to Far-Right German Politician". The New York Times, October 31, 2018.
• "Smaller Democracies Grapple with the Threat of Russian Interference". The New Yorker, December 8, 2018.
• "With Drone Deliveries on the Horizon, Europe Moves to Set Ground Rules". The New York Times, December 31, 2018.
• "A Cold War Case of Russian Collusion: What the Investigation of a 1972 Stasi Operation Can Teach Us About the Mueller Report". Foreign Affairs, April 5, 2019.
• "Election Meddling in Russia: When Boris Yeltsin Asked Bill Clinton for Help". The Washington Post, June 26, 2020.

Book

• Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference. New York: Knopf, 2020. ISBN 978-0-525-65900-6