Vinca LaFleur

Vinca LaFleur is a visiting fellow in the CSIS International Security Program. She is also president of Vinca LaFleur Communications, which provides professional writing services to leaders in government, business, and the nonprofit world. From 1995 to 1998, she served as a member of the National Security Council staff as director for speechwriting and special assistant to the president. In that capacity, she authored more than 100 speeches and statements on foreign policy, defense, terrorism, trade, and other national security issues for the president and his national security advisers. Prior to joining the White House staff, Ms. LaFleur served as a speechwriter for the secretary of state. She also spent four years as a political and human rights analyst at the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Ms. LaFleur worked with former national security adviser Anthony Lake on his book Six Nightmares (Little Brown, 2000) and with CSIS authors Kurt Campbell and Michèle Flournoy on To Prevail: An American Strategy for the Campaign against Terrorism (CSIS, 2001). Her articles have appeared in the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and the New York Observer. She holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.