US policy think-tank chooses Georgian ex-president for Kissinger fellowship

Former Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili has been named the 2025 Kissinger Fellow by the McCain Institute, an American think-tank focused on policy research and foreign politics.

The institute, which has been named after Republican heavyweight, late Senator John McCain, announced their news on December 6, as Caliber.Az reports. 

According to the institute's press release, the Georgian politician, unaffiliated to any local political fraction, “embodies political courage and the ideals of state governance".

"Zourabichvili will leverage her extensive diplomatic, leadership, and political experience to advocate for new elections and the democratic development of her country," the American institute wrote of her in their announcement of the annual fellowship pick.

Following the December 2024 presidential elections in Georgia, won by Mikheil Kavelashvili from the majority party, Georgian Dream, Zourabichvili initially declared that she had no intention of relinquishing her presidential mandate after her term ended. She did, however, ultimately step down, with her few supporters waving American flags during her departure.

In their announcement of Zourabichvili, a president who holds dual-nationality with French and Georgian passports, the institute wrote that they believe she will "continue the tradition of principled, strategic leadership in one of the world’s most consequential democratic battlegrounds".

The McCain Institute is a nonpartisan think-tank part of Arizona State University which aims to defend “democracy, advance human rights, and empower character-driven leaders”. The organization offers two fellowship programs, one of which has been named after former US Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. According to their website, the program aims to “advance character-driven leadership both in the US and around the world” and build a strong network of public servants and policy experts from a variety of administrations, federal departments and professions.

By Nazrin Sadigova