Rusudan Zabakhidze
Georgia
Rusudan Zabakhidze is a coordinator of the annual International Conference of Europeanists at the Council for European Studies at Columbia University. She is also dissemination and outreach officer for the Jean-Monnet Funded project “Securitisation of Migration and Ethnic Minorities and the Rise of Xenophobia in the European Union (SECUREU)”. Before this role, she briefly worked at Open Society Foundation’s Eurasia Program in London, UK.
Rusudan has vast experience working with civil society organizations in Georgia focusing on the issues of democratization, civil-military relations, conflict transformation, Trans-Atlantic defense, and security. Rusudan has completed research fellowships at Middle East Institute’s Frontier Europe Initiative, Embassy of Georgia to Ireland, Council for European Studies, and GLOBSEC – a Bratislava-based think tank. She is also an alumna of the German Marshal Fund’s Policy Designers Network’20.
Rusudan obtained her MSc in Security, Intelligence, and Strategic Studies from the University of Glasgow, Dublin City University, and Charles University in Prague with a specialization in strategic studies. She holds a BA in International Relations from Tbilisi State University. Rusudan has also been an Erasmus exchange student at the Department of European Studies at Comenius University in Bratislava.
Articles
“United States partnerships with Georgia and Ukraine: Prospects for advancing military cooperation” for Middle East Institute. April 2021. Available here.
“Continuity and change in America’s military partnership with Ukraine” for Middle East Institute, October 2020, Available here.
“Georgian Defense Forces: The role of military partnerships” for Middle East Institute, August 2020, Available here.
“The Nexus of Russian Foreign and Domestic Policy through Diversionary Warfare in Ukraine” for Strategy Bridge. July 2019 Available here.
”Whoever is afraid of feminism, is afraid to admit and accept that, fundamentally, women are strong beings. In various societies, over centuries, political leaders have made use of many skills and tricks to keep women power under control. On the other hand, power comes with responsibility – always. Admitting that you are strong means taking responsibility for this power. Sometimes that overwhelms.”
