Mr. Ruslan Ramanov is a Military Contracts Exchange Officer in the Office of Military Cooperation in the U.S. Embassy in Uzbekistan. Previously he served a the Executive Assistant to the Head of the NATO Office in Central Asia, where his primary responsibilities are constant and direct communication with Foreign and Defense Ministries of the five Central Asian countries and their permanent missions to NATO. The goal of this communication was to maximize the countries’ use of NATO’s partnership, and to facilitate NATO’s practical engagement with Central Asian partners in defense planning and review, defense education and training, civil emergency planning, cooperation on science and environmental issues and public diplomacy. Mr. Ramanov’s responsibilities also included briefing NATO Headquarters on relevant political-military, security and defense news from the region and to implement various NATO Public Diplomacy activities in the region. Prior to joining the NATO Office, from 2001 to 2013 Mr. Ramanov worked at various international agencies and civil society institutions including UNDP, Freedom House and OSCE. Mr. Ramanov holds an MA in Public Policy Administration from the University of Missouri, St. Louis (2009).