Natia Gamkrelidze

Natia Gamkrelidze is an International Security postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. 

Her current research project, "Changing Geopolitics of the Black Sea: Intersection of Politics, Energy, and Trade," delves into the evolving geopolitical dynamics of the Black Sea Region following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and their impacts on policy choices and corporate strategies. It emphasizes energy security, trade policies, and investment opportunities, integrating insights from interviews with top political and industry figures. The study aims to provide actionable intelligence for both political elites and private sector stakeholders, bridging the gap between academic research and real-world applications.

Natia received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Linnaeus University, Sweden and an M.A. in political science from Lund University, Sweden. Formerly, she held appointments as a fellow at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, a visiting scholar at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, and a visiting Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. Her doctoral project studied the foreign policies of the United States, NATO, the European Union, and Russia towards Georgia, and Georgia's foreign policy from 1991 to 2020, involving 102 political elite interviews with all above-mentioned actors, with a specific focus on the role of perceptions of political elites in foreign policy decision-making. 

She has taught foreign policy analysis, international security, global politics, and European integration for five years at Linnaeus University. Natia has published on U.S., NATO, EU, and Russian foreign policy. Her research interests include International Security, Western and Russian foreign policies towards the Black Sea region, West-Russia relations, and energy and trade pipelines in the Black Sea. She is a native speaker of Georgian, fluent in English and Russian, and also speaks Swedish.