As U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (1997–2000), he was instrumental in the expansion of NATO to include former members of the Eastern bloc and acted as a leading policy designer in the U.S.–Europe relations.
He played an important role in the 1999 Washington summit of NATO, when Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary joined the Alliance.
[3] For his diplomatic work, Asmus was decorated by the US Department of State and the governments of Estonia, Georgia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Sweden.
[2][5] Asmus later served as the executive director of the Brussels-based Transatlantic Center and was also responsible for strategic planning at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Being one of the most persistent advocates for the integration of Georgia into the European Union and NATO, Asmus viewed the conflict in terms of a larger Russia–West relations and argued that it was Georgian independence, and its Westward orientation, which angered Russia and set the groundwork for war.