Laura Linderman

Laura Linderman joined the American Foreign Policy Council as Senior Fellow and Director of Programs for the Central Asia Caucasus Institute (CACI) in 2024. In this role, she coordinates and oversees all CACI activities, conducts research and publishes policy work on Central Asia and the Caucasus, oversees institutional fundraising and hosts policy forums, expert roundtables, and diplomatic events. Her research focuses on the North and South Caucasus, with particular emphasis on Georgian politics, economics, and foreign relations, as well as ethnic minorities and conflict dynamics in the South Caucasus.

Previously, she was a Senior Fellow with the Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council from 2014-2024 and Associate Director there from 2012-2014. From 2022-2024, she taught South Caucasian studies to U.S. foreign affairs professionals preparing to depart for Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan at the Foreign Service Institute.

Linderman also served as Senior Global Certification Program Manager at Splunk, a machine data software company, from 2014-2022. She was a former board member of the Transcaucasian Trail Association from 2018-2024.

Her analysis has appeared in Foreign Policy, the National Interest, the American Interest, The Hill, The Dispatch, the National Security Journal, and the Anthropology of East Europe Review, as well as Atlantic Council publications. Her commentary has been featured by the BBC, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America, TVP World, The Huffington Post, and Georgian media outlets including Civil.ge, Rustavi2, Imedi TV, and TV Pirveli. She served as a delegation member for NDI's Georgian Presidential Election Monitoring Mission in 2018.

Linderman holds a BA in anthropology and German language and literature from Wellesley College and an MA in anthropology from Indiana University. Her master's thesis on gender in rural western Georgia, based on fieldwork conducted in 2009, has been utilized for Marine Corps cross-cultural training programs.