--- description: What was Victoria Nuland's role in shaping U.S. diplomacy abroad? title: Meet Victoria Nuland Video image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltead06cde231f11cc/69868284d0b6f208a6302ecd/467541273_1280.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Meet the Diplomat Who Told Off The European Union  by [Francesca Trianni](/author/francesca-trianni/)  ## Francesca Trianni Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 8, 2014 4:32 AM CUT   by [Francesca Trianni](/author/francesca-trianni/)  ## Francesca Trianni Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 8, 2014 4:32 AM CUT After months of criticism for snooping on foreign leaders, it was an American official from the Obama administration that found herself on the other hand of a spy’s prying ear. Victoria Nuland, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, was suddenly thrown into the limelight when an audio clip was [leaked online ](http://world.time.com/2014/02/06/victoria-nuland-leaked-audio-european-union/ "undefined")in which she was caught bad mouthing the European Union. But this is not the first time the career diplomat has found herself in the eye of the storm. Nuland was the State Department’s spokeswoman in 2012 when militants attacked U.S. government posts in Benghazi, Libya, which left U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead. From helping to open the first U.S. Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to serving as a NATO ambassador, Nuland has been shaping U.S. diplomacy abroad for two decades. Watch the video above to know about the American official behind the controversial off-color remark. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6457/meet-the-diplomat-who-told-off-the-european-union/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6457/meet-the-diplomat-who-told-off-the-european-union/"},"headline":"Meet the Diplomat Who Told Off The European Union","datePublished":"2014-02-08T04:32:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:22:12.559Z","description":"What was Victoria Nuland's role in shaping U.S. diplomacy abroad?","url":"https://time.com/6457/meet-the-diplomat-who-told-off-the-european-union/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltead06cde231f11cc/69868284d0b6f208a6302ecd/467541273_1280.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Francesca Trianni","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/francesca-trianni/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltead06cde231f11cc/69868284d0b6f208a6302ecd/467541273_1280.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"467541273_1280","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6457/meet-the-diplomat-who-told-off-the-european-union/","name":"Meet the Diplomat Who Told Off The European Union"}}]}] ```