Thomas de Waal

Senior Associate
Russia and Eurasia Program
De Waal is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment, specializing primarily in the South Caucasus region comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia and their breakaway territories as well as the wider Black Sea region.
 

Education

BA, Balliol College at Oxford University

Languages

English; Greek; Russian

Contact Information

 

Tom de Waal is a senior associate in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment, specializing primarily in the South Caucasus region, comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia and their breakaway territories, as well as in the wider Black Sea region.

De Waal is an acknowledged expert on the unresolved conflicts of the South Caucasus: Abkhazia, Nagorny Karabakh, and South Ossetia. From 2002 to 2009, he worked as an analyst and project manager on the conflicts in the South Caucasus for the London-based NGOs Conciliation Resources and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.

He is author of the authoritative book on the Karabakh conflict, Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War (NYU Press, 2003), which has been translated into Armenian, Azeri, and Russian. His latest book is The Caucasus: An Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2010).

De Waal has worked extensively as a journalist and writer in the Caucasus and Black Sea region and in Russia. He has twice worked as an analyst and reporter for the BBC World Service in London, from 1991 to 1993 and from 1998 to 1999, and continues to make documentaries for BBC Radio.

From 1993 to 1997, he worked in Moscow for the Moscow Times, the Times of London, and the Economist, specializing in Russian politics and the situation in Chechnya. He is the co-author (with Carlotta Gall) of the book Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus (NYU Press, 1997), for which the authors were awarded the James Cameron Prize for Distinguished Reporting. 

  • Other Publications Keynote Presentation at the Rose Roth Conference in Tbilisi, Georgia April 29, 2013
    The Search for Security in the Caucasus

    The persistent insecurity in the Caucasus requires a shift of strategy from conflict resolution to conflict transformation.

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  • Op-Ed Financial Times April 23, 2013
    Russia Must Let the World Into Chechnya

    The North Caucasus, home of a low-level Islamist insurgency, is easily Europe’s worst conflict zone. Moscow has lost authority over the territory—but no one else has gained it.

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  • Suspects' Culture of Migration and Machismo
    Op-Ed CNN April 20, 2013
    Suspects' Culture of Migration and Machismo

    Chechnya is outwardly much more quiet than in previous years, but a low-level Islamist insurgency continues in and around the region that takes dozens of lives each year.

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  • Op-Ed Times Literary Supplement April 5, 2013
    Caucasian Circles

    Although set in a mythological period of Georgian history, the narrative of Otar Chiladze's latest work is an allegory of the Georgian Soviet era.

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  • Op-Ed Foreign Policy March 8, 2013
    Political Tremors in the Caucasus

    Protests in Russia and President Saakashvili's October defeat in Georgia's legislative elections have given new confidence to protesters throughout the South Caucasus.

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  • Stalin Puzzle
    Report March 1, 2013 Русский
    The Stalin Puzzle: Deciphering Post-Soviet Public Opinion

    Joseph Stalin, the Soviet leader responsible for the deaths of millions, still commands worryingly high levels of admiration in some post-Soviet countries.

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  • Article December 5, 2012
    A Truth Commission for Georgia

    Georgia’s government should take a transitional justice approach to crimes allegedly committed under Saakashvili’s rule and form a truth commission to examine controversial cases.

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  • Ivanishvili
    Op-Ed Foreign Affairs December 5, 2012
    No America in the Caucasus

    While Georgia may not ever become an 'America in the Caucasus,' it does have a chance to be a modern state, with a government that reflects the will of the people.

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  • Op-Ed National Interest November 16, 2012
    Worrying About the Wrong Neighbor

    Nothing is likely to significantly change in Georgia’s relations with Russia, but its relations with Turkey are a much bigger cause for concern.

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  • Op-Ed Europe-Asia Studies November 1, 2012
    A Broken Region: The Persistent Failure of Integration Projects in the South Caucasus

    A cursory look at the history of the South Caucasus in the 20th century suggests that political animosity has prevented the South Caucasus region from successfully integrating.

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  • The Caucasus: An Introduction
    Oxford University Press September 17, 2010
    The Caucasus: An Introduction

    While the Caucasus is too often treated as a subset of Russian history or as merely a gateway to Asia, it remains an important and combustible region, whose inner dynamics and history deserve a much more complex appreciation from the wider world.

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  • CNN April 27, 2013
    Boston Terror: Behind the Bombings

    The two suspected terrorists were influenced at least indirectly by the Chechen wars which devastated Chechnya. While this was traumatic for most, a small minority have become radicalized.

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  • PRI’s The World March 5, 2013
    Why Stalin Remains Popular in Parts of Former Soviet Union

    Stalin is a figure not just of the past, but of the present.

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  • BBC World News March 5, 2013
    Remembering Stalin

    The figure of Stalin still provokes many positive reactions in the former Soviet Union.

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  • Voice of America February 27, 2013
    Tensions Between Armenia and Azerbaijan

    The situation in the South Caucasus continues to be perilous as leaders of both Armenia and Azerbaijan find themselves increasingly boxed in by domestic political constraints.

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  • Worldview October 1, 2012
    Georgia’s Parliamentary Elections

    With the ruling party’s loss to the opposition Georgian Dream coalition, the country’s leading political parties must find a way to share power and enable a peaceful political transition.

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  • BBC World News June 5, 2012
    Smoldering Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict Could Re-Erupt

    The unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has the potential to flare up again as tensions mount on their interstate border.

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  • ABC Radio's Saturday Extra December 11, 2010
    The Caucasus: History Needn't Repeat

    While the nations of the Caucasus are heavily influenced by historical narratives of intractable ethnic conflicts, a more critical look at the region’s history reveals a number of surprising alliances and pragmatic resolutions.

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  • Soumela monastery
    BBC News February 1, 2010
    Music and Politics Color Greek Pilgrimage to Trebizond

    The Turkish government’s new foreign policy of building bridges with old enemies, including the Armenians and the Greeks, is working to slowly bring about a new spirit of tolerance in modern Turkey.

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  • Special Forces guard site of two blasts, Makhachka
    May 14, 2013 Washington, DC
    North Caucasus Under the Spotlight

    Since the Boston Marathon bombings, Russia’s relationship with its Muslim minorities has become the focus of intense scrutiny in the West.

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  • March 14, 2013 Washington, DC
    Governance and Democratic Reform in Georgia

    Following last October’s elections, Georgia is living through an unprecedented state of “cohabitation” between president and prime minister and a very lively parliament.

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  • March 1, 2013 Washington, DC
    The Stalin Puzzle

    Sixty years after his death on March 5, 1953, Joseph Stalin still commands worryingly high levels of admiration in the post-Soviet space.

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  • February 22, 2013 Washington, DC
    Georgia's Legal Reform Revisited: Agenda for Improvement

    Georgia’s new government has said that the rule of law is one of its top priorities.

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  • Saakashvili; Yanukovych
    January 14, 2013 Brussels
    Georgia and Ukraine: Road to Democracy?

    Recent developments in Europe’s post-Soviet neighborhood, in countries like Georgia and Ukraine, have highlighted the region’s struggling efforts for democratization.

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  • December 18, 2012 Washington, D.C.
    Supporting Democracy in Georgia and Ukraine: Time for a Rethink?

    Recent events in the post-Soviet European neighborhood have again put the spotlight on struggling efforts for democratization in the region.

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  • December 17, 2012 Washington, D.C.
    The Desert of Forbidden Art

    “The Desert of Forbidden Art” tells the incredible story of how a treasure trove of banned Soviet art worth millions of dollars was stashed in a far-off desert of Uzbekistan.

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  • Saakashvili and Ivanishvili
    December 7, 2012 Washington, D.C.
    Justice in Georgia

    After a historical transition, caused by the defeat of Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement in October’s parliamentary elections, the issue of what constitutes justice has come to the forefront of political life in Georgia.

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  • September 25, 2012 Washington, D.C.
    Georgia on the Eve of Parliamentary Elections

    On October 1, Georgia votes in a parliamentary election which is set to be its most important and closely-watched contest since the Rose Revolution of 2003.

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  • August 1, 2012 Washington, D.C.
    A Closer Look at Ukraine's Foreign Policy

    Ukraine continues to seek a course between full integration with both the West and the East, but the EU association process has stalled and Kyiv is resisting Russian pressure to join the customs union.

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Source: http://carnegieendowment.org/experts/index.cfm?fa=expert_view&expert_id=479

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