The Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center hosted a discussion about Georgia’s recent parliamentary elections held on October 1 with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DLR) Thomas Melia, NDI President Kenneth Wollack, and Atlantic Council Executive Vice President Damon Wilson.
Eurasia Center Director Ross Wilson moderated the discussion.
Thomas O. Melia is deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Right, and Labor (DRL). He is responsible for DRL’s work in Europe, including Russia, and the countries of Central and South Asia, as well as worker rights issues worldwide. In addition to serving as head of US delegation to several meetings of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Melia is the US co-chair of the Civil Society Working Group in the US-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission. Mr. Melia came to DRL in 2010 from Freedom House where he was deputy executive director for five years. Earlier, Mr. Melia held senior posts NDI.
Kenneth Wollack joined NDI in 1986 as executive vice president and was elected president in 1993. Before joining NDI, Mr. Wollack co-edited the Middle East Policy Survey, a Washington-based newsletter. He also wrote regularly on foreign affairs for the Los Angeles Times. From 1973 to 1980, he served as legislative director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Mr. Wollack currently is a member of the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid and has served as chairman of the US Committee for the United Nations Development Programme.
Damon Wilson is executive vice president of the Atlantic Council. From 2007 to 2009, Mr. Wilson served as special assistant to the president and senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council. Mr. Wilson has also served at the US Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq as the executive secretary and chief of staff; at the National Security Council as the director for Central, Eastern, and Northern European affairs; and as deputy director in the Private Office of NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson. Prior to serving in Brussels, Mr. Wilson worked in the US Department of State in various positions and served in Rwanda with Save the Children. He is a graduate of Duke University and completed his graduate studies at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs.
MEDIA MENTIONS
- U.S. Official on Georgia’s Elections and Power Handover – Civil Georgia
- U.S.: ‘More Than Election’ Needed To Advance Georgian Democracy – Radio Free Europe/Radio Free Liberty
- Thomas O. Melia speaks of parliamentary elections conducted in Georgia – Tabula
- Atlantic Council discussed parliamentary elections in Georgia – GHN
- US Official on Georgia’s Democracy – Georgia Online
- US takes wait-and-see approach to Georgia’s Ivanishvili – Paul Rimple, Christian Science Monitor