Aleksandra Gadzala Tirziu is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center and Scowcroft Strategy Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. She is a globally recognized advisor on a range of geopolitical issues with a unique focus on authoritarian systems and commercial growth. Her expertise in foreign policy and business strategy has facilitated extensive counsel to international corporations and government entities worldwide.

Tirziu founded the geopolitical-risk and public-affairs consultancy Magpie Advisory to bring her depth of advisory services to business and policy leaders. She is a visiting fellow with the Independent Women’s Forum, where her research focuses on a range of issues in foreign affairs, with specialties in US-China, EU-China, China-Africa, and transatlantic relations. Tirziu is also a lecturer in international relations at the University of Zurich, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate seminars on Chinese foreign policy, technology and geopolitics, and conflict and security.

Tirziu is a contributing editor at the New York Sun. She has been featured and interviewed in numerous international platforms including Monocle, Axios, the National Interest, CNNMoney Switzerland, and the World Economic Forum’s Agenda. She has also appeared before the European Parliament to speak on such topics as Europe-Africa policy and Chinese political warfare. Tirziu is author and editor of the book Africa and China: How Africans and Their Governments are Shaping Relations with China.

A graduate of the University of Oxford, Tirziu earned a PhD and master of philosophy in politics. She holds a 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.