Aleksandra Gadzala Tirziu is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center and GeoStrategy Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Her work focuses on the soft power dynamics of great power competition and China’s growing ideological global influence. With a background in the private and public sectors, as well as media, Tirziu has provided counsel to corporations and governments worldwide.

Tirziu is the founder of Magpie Advisory. She serves as a visiting fellow with the Independent Women’s Forum, an advisory board member at the Vandenberg Coalition, and a lecturer in international relations at the University of Zurich. At the University of Zurich, she teaches undergraduate and graduate seminars on Chinese foreign policy, the intersection of emerging technologies and conflict, and the shifting contours of global security.

Tirziu is the author of China and Africa: How Africans and Their Governments are Shaping Relations with China. She is a contributing editor and columnist at The New York Sun, and a contributing writer with the Washington Examiner. Tirziu has been featured and interviewed in numerous international outlets, including The National Interest, The Hill, The American Spectator, Axios, and Monocle. She has also appeared before US congressional staff briefings and sessions of the European Parliament. Much of her commentary addresses China’s global ambitions, US foreign policy, and geopolitics. Tirziu’s work is informed by her experience as a geopolitical specialist, country analyst, political and sovereign risk analyst, and research leader. A graduate of the University of Oxford, Tirziu earned a PhD and MPhil in politics. She holds an honors BA in political science from Northwestern University. Born in Europe and raised in the American Midwest, Tirziu has lived and worked in six countries across three continents. She currently divides her time between Zurich, Switzerland, and Palm Beach, Florida.