Ambassador Batu Kutelia is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute's (FPRI) Eurasia Program. He is the former Georgian ambassador to the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and former Deputy Secretary of Georgia's National Security Council. Kutelia is a member of the Atlantic Council of Georgia's board and a professor at Alte University in Tbilisi. He also served as Georgia's Defense Minister in 2008, during Russia's war against Georgia.