of

Kristine Berzina

Managing Director, GMF North
Washington, DC Office
GMF Expert
My Areas of Expertise:
Defense Cooperation Disinformation NATO

Kristine Berzina is the Managing Director for GMF North. She is based in GMF’s Washington office, where she leads the security and defense portfolio and focuses on US security cooperation with Europe, NATO, US-EU relations, and sub-threshold threats including disinformation and energy. She also co-leads GMF’s Russia Transatlantic Initiative. Berzina appears frequently in international media, including the BBC, CNN, France 24, NPR, Deutsche Welle, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Before taking on this role, Berzina worked on countering autocratic influence as head of GMF’s Alliance for Securing Democracy’s geopolitics team. She previously worked on transatlantic security and energy issues in Brussels and Berlin. A native of Latvia, Berzina grew up in the United States and has also spent substantial time in Moscow. She received her Master’s degree in international relations from the University of Cambridge and her Bachelor’s in political science and history from Yale University. Berzina is a native speaker of English and Latvian, has worked in German, and has a basic knowledge of Russian and French.

Media Mentions

by
Kristine Berzina
“ While Washington, as well as Sweden and Finland, had initially sought to have both countries join NATO together, 'there’s also a desire to keep this moving.' ”
Translated from English
Diplomatic
by
Kristine Berzina
“ It will be very hard to make 2% a real floor. But I think some kind of commitment not to forever fail as badly — as many countries did — would be possible. ”
Translated from English
DW
by
Kristine Berzina
“ China has sought entry into all the relevant international organizations and has strategically undermined them from within ”
euronews
by
Kristine Berzina
“ Ukraine is really showing the U.S. why democracy matters. Why open communication matters, why having press and having citizens on the ground, being able to show each other what's going on matters. ”
Spectrum News
by
Kristine Berzina
“ Russia has its hand all across the energy sector in Europe. Trying to get away from Russian coal or from Russian gas or from Russian anything means shifting to a different fuel, but Russia's going to have a share in that, too. ”
U.S. News
by
Kristine Berzina
“ Germans thought that, because the Wall came down peacefully, that Ostpolitik was right. Their lived experience was that those relations led to the right outcome, and that meant that making sure that the gas keeps flowing was paramount not only for the German economy but that it was the right strategic decision. ”
The New Yorker
by
Kristine Berzina
“ As other forms of income are being reduced through sanctions, to have a steady stream of income through energy gives Russia something to rely on to keep making bullets, to keep making armour, and to do all the other things needed to sustain and potentially accelerate this war effort. ”
Sydney Morning Herald
by
Kristine Berzina
“ The European Union is about to push hard to get Europe off of Russian fossil fuels. [As long as European nations are still buying oil and gas from Russia, they are] funding the war machine. ”
Los Angeles Times
by
Kristine Berzina
“ The fact there is a lot of military resolve, that there is an understanding of the possibility for territorial conflict, if that had been more explicit, perhaps Russia would have felt it didn’t need to test that. ”
Bloomberg

Featured Work