Bio: Alexandra George
Alexandra George is an author and international media communications specialist. Much of her career has involved working in post-conflict regions or in economies in transition.
At the end of 2011 she finished her third tour of the Balkans with the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo. Prior that she was the Spokesperson and Director of Press and Public Information with the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina in April 2006. She has spent most of her professional career overseas, both in the United Nations and as an international journalist and author. She has worked in several UN Missions, serving variously as a Public Information Officer, Chief of Press/Public Affairs and Spokesperson, including at the United Nations Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, where she covered Kurdistan, the UN Mission in Kosovo, the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (Caucasus), and, before joining the OSCE, as Chief of Press and Public Affairs at the international criminal tribunal, the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
She has also worked as an international journalist in Russia/Central Asia, Middle East, South and Southeast Asia. She was Regional Correspondent/Southeast Asia for Business International based in Bangkok, Thailand, and Assistant Editor/Far East at the Economist Intelligence Unit, London. She has published numerous articles, which have appeared in such publications as The Guardian, Spectator, Financial Times, Financial Times Middle East Markets, Le Monde Diplomatique and the Economist Development Report.
Ms. George is the author of three books, including a book on the Russian transition, Escape from ‘Ward Six’: Russia Facing Past and Present which also appeared in Polish-language edition in 2004. She lived several years in Russia while researching and writing Ward Six. She also spent a year in Kazakhstan, with a grant from a Washington DC-based foundation, while writing her third book, which focused on the country’s post-Soviet regime.
Alexandra George is fluent in English, French and Russian and she has worked as a French-English and Russian-English translator at UNHQ, New York and Moscow Times, Moscow. Her published translated works from Russian include several art catalogues for the State Hermitage, St. Petersburg, and a book, Velasquez. She also knows German which she studied in Vienna, Austria.
She holds two post-graduate degrees from Columbia University: a Master of International Affairs with a minor in Journalism and the Certificate in Soviet Area Studies from the Harriman Institute.