Thomas de Waal Curriculum Vitae
Writer; journalist; editor; broadcaster; analyst on Russia, Caucasus and Black Sea;
Employment:
January 2002— present, London:
Caucasus Editor, The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), London.
2003—present, London/Georgia:
Co-editor and project coordinator of Panorama, the only newspaper to be published on both sides of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict.
February 2000 –November 2001, South Caucasus:
Working on book on Armenia-Azerbaijan. BBC World Service reporter for the South Caucasus.
January 1998 – January 2000, London:
BBC World Service Radio. Regional analyst on Former Soviet Union.
September 1993—May 1997, Moscow:
The Times (of London). Moscow Correspondent, July 1995 – January 1997.
The Moscow Times. Political correspondent and columnist, September 1993 – July 1995.
The Economist. Reporter/stand-in correspondent, June 1995 – May 1997.
August 1991 – August 1993, London:
BBC World Service Radio. Reporter/producer
Education:
1984-8 Balliol College, Oxford (scholar). First Class Degree in Modern Languages (Russian and Modern Greek).
1986-7 Pushkin Institute, Moscow. Diploma in Russian Language.
Short list of publications:
Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War (NYU Press, 2003), the first book-length study of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Paul Quinn-Judge in Time: “De Waal's book will infuriate blind partisans on both sides, but for anyone who truly wants to understand what happened in this part of the Caucasus, it will not be surpassed for many years. He is cautious, meticulous and even-handed, and the breadth of his research is remarkable.”
Neal Ascherson in The New York Review of Books: “Thomas de Waal belongs to a very special order of journalists, the small corps of Western reporters who have covered events in the Caucasus over the last ten or twelve years… an admirable, rigorous book.”
Chechnya, A Small Victorious War (Pan, 1997), published in USA as Chechnya, Calamity in the Caucasus (NYU Press, 1998). Co-authored with Carlotta Gall of.
Bill Keller in the New York Times: “Their book is an exceptional feat of war correspondence. It is hard to imagine that it will be surpassed as the definitive account of the conflict.”
“Georgia and Its Distant Neighbours,” Chapter in Statehood and Security Georgia after the Rose Revolution Ed. Bruno Coppieters and Robert Legvold (MIT Press, 2005)
“Chechnya: The Breaking Point,” Chapter in Chechnya: From Past to Future Ed. Richard Sakwa (Anthem, 2005)
Introduction to Anna Politkovskaya, A Dirty War, (Harvill, 2001).
Many articles published in, amongst other publications, the London Review of Books, the Independent, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Prospect and The World Today. (List available on request)
Work in Progress: The Betrayed. Five Black Sea Stories from Odessa, Crimea and Istanbul.
Radio programmes presented include:
Boris Pasternak: After the Blizzard, (BBC Radio 3, 2001)
Baku: Blood and Blues (BBC Radio 3, 2002)
Crimean Voices (BBC Radio 4, 2004).
Forthcoming: Bosphorus Battles (BBC Radio 3, 2008)
Awards/grants:
Research grant, United States Institute of Peace, 2000-1.
(With Carlotta Gall), James Cameron Prize for Outstanding Reporting, 1998.
Foreign languages: Russian (Absolute fluency), Modern Greek (fluency), French (reading knowledge).
