Michael Hikari Cecire was an International Security Program Fellow at New America. A Black Sea regional specialist, he has worked in a variety of political risk and public policy roles supporting U.S. national security, international economic development, and democracy promotion. Cecire is a former visiting scholar at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, a co-founder of the Georgian Institute of Politics in Tbilisi, and previously consulted as a policy adviser at the Ministry of Economy of Georgia.
Currently, Cecire conducts research and writes extensively on regional security and political developments in Europe and Eurasia. His research and analyses have appeared in peer-reviewed publications, policy documents, and a variety of international outlets. Cecire was also the managing co-editor of Georgian Foreign Policy: The Quest for Sustainable Security, a policy volume published by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (2014). He also contributed a chapter to a recent book on Turkish foreign policy from Routledge (2016).
He is the Colchis columnist for bne Intellinews and frequently publishes analyses in a variety prominent U.S. and international outlets, where his comments and interviews also often appear. He is regularly consulted by the U.S. government and think tank community, and has recently given talks at the National Defense University, the Foreign Service Institute, the Brookings Institution, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the Center for Global Interests, and many others.
Cecire was a Young Professional Network fellow at the Eurasia Foundation (2013-2014), and is also a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. In addition, he is a co-founder and executive editor of Viewscreen Magazine, a journal of speculative policy fiction. He holds a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania.