Michael’s role at Crisis Group involves research, analysis and advocacy on Indo-Pacific geopolitics and security, politics and foreign policies of China and Asia-Pacific countries, non-Asian states' foreign policies on Asia and multilateral diplomacy.

Michael Kovrig is a former Canadian foreign service officer who previously served for more than a decade as a diplomat in China and at the United Nations, and as a senior desk officer covering international security at Canada's foreign ministry in Ottawa. He has worked in several countries in roles including strategic communications specialist for the UN Development Group, researcher on China for the firm that is now Rhodium Group, and earlier as a journalist and foreign correspondent in Eastern Europe. Michael has a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University.

• Asia-Pacific/Indo-Pacific geopolitics and security
• China
• U.S. and EU foreign policy on China and Asia
• United Nations
• Multilateral diplomacy

• Chinese (fluent) 
• French (fluent)

• China Expands Its Peace and Security Footprint in Africa
• The Future is Now for China’s Challenges and Xi Jinping’s Ambitions
• Deep Freeze and Beyond: Making the Trump-Kim Summit a Success
• The Korean Peninsula Crisis (I): In the Line of Fire and Fury
• The Korean Peninsula Crisis (II): From Fire and Fury to Freeze-for-Freeze
• The Twists and Turns along China’s Belt and Road
• Central Asia’s Silk Road Rivalries