Stent joined the Government Department at
Georgetown University in 1979. In 2001, she received a joint appointment as Professor of Government and Foreign Service and became Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies. At the
Brookings Institution, she co-chairs the Hewitt Forum on Post-Soviet Affairs. From 1999 to 2001, she served in the
Office of Policy Planning in both the
Clinton and
Bush Administrations, where she was responsible for Russia and Eastern Europe. From 2004 to 2006, she was the National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia at the
National Intelligence Council. From 2008 to 2012, she was a member of Supreme Allied Commander in Europe advisory panel.
Writings Her first book, published in 1982 by
Cambridge University Press, was
From Embargo to Ostpolitik: the Political Economy of West German-Soviet Relations. While researching this book, Stent was mugged in Moscow, according to an article she wrote in
The New York Times. She reported that the policeman investigating the case maintained it could not have happened, declaring, "We have no crime in the U.S.S.R."
Russia and Germany Reborn: Unification, the Soviet Collapse, and the New Europe was her second book, published by
Princeton University Press in 1999. In it, she analyzed and narrated the tumultuous events that led to the end of
communism in Eastern Europe, the collapse of the
Soviet Union, the emergence of modern Russia, and the
reunification of West and East Germany.
Mikhail Gorbachev, former Communist Party First Secretary and then President of the Soviet Union, was among the interviewees for the book. When Stent asked Gorbachev what world leader he most admired, his answer was "
Ronald Reagan was the greatest western statesman with whom I dealt. He was an intelligent and astute politician who had vision and imagination."
The Limits of Partnership Stent's 2014 book,
The Limits of Partnership: US-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century, examines the difficulties for the United States in establishing a productive relationship with
post-Soviet Russia. Stent argues that four US presidents have pursued their own "resets" with Russia, each of which ended in disappointment. For her research for the book, Stent was a decade of meetings that
Vladimir Putin has held with Russia experts. At one, Stent asked Putin whether Russia was an energy superpower. He said that "superpower" was "a word we used during the
Cold War. I have never referred to Russia as an energy superpower. But we do have greater possibilities than almost any other country in the world. If we put together Russia's energy potential in all areas, oil, gas and nuclear, our country is unquestionably the leader." In 2014, Stent was awarded the American Academy's
Douglas Dillon Award for excellent authorship on topics of American diplomacy by
The American Academy of Diplomacy.
''Putin's World'' Stent's book ''Putin's World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest'' was published in February 2019. It assesses Putin's view of Russia's place in the world through examining Russia's ongoing relationships with allies and adversaries, specifically narrowing in on Russia's downward spiral with
NATO,
Europe, and the
United States and its ties to
China,
Japan, and the
Middle East, in addition to its neighbors like
Ukraine. Stent argues that "as the
Trump team accelerates the U.S. retreat from the Middle East, Mr. Putin has been quick to spot and take advantage of openings, and he operates without many of the constraints of his Soviet predecessors. The U.S. will have to get used to dealing with a savvy rival for influence in the Middle East." It considers how Russia has no real allies and speculates what may occur to the country and its geopolitical identity upon the ending of Putin's term in 2024 and how the West should respond to Russia moving forward. == Other activities ==