Kramer moved to Washington, D.C., and began working at the Center for Strategic and International Studies for Stephen Sestanovich in 1993, on Ulam's recommendation.

Beginning in June 2001, he served as Special Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky.

From July 2005 to March 2008, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs under Dan Fried.

He spent much of his time at this post traveling to places like Hanoi, Vietnam, twice to Ethiopia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, among others.

Kramer left his position at the State Department during the presidential transition of Barack Obama in January 2009, and became a Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund.

[11] In 2016 Kramer argued that the Minsk II peace agreement should be scrapped and international sanctions on Russia maintained.

[12] In his book, Back to Containment, published in 2017, Kramer excoriated various elder statesmen of the United States, such as Henry Kissinger, for undertaking hybrid back-channel efforts to re-approach Russia, accusing them of naivete and violation of the Logan Act.

Kramer contends that these actions undermined American security vis-a-vis Russia and the region, citing Kissinger's inclusion into Myrotvorets, Ukraine's semi-official blacklist.

[14] In two separate op-eds for Politico Magazine in 2016 and 2021, Kramer called for the most edgewise brinkmanship in tailoring new policy towards Russia, especially on the domestic side.