MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) – Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili will give lectures as a senior statesman at the famous US school for diplomats in Boston starting from January.
A US-educated lawyer and leader of ‘The Rose Revolution’ in 2003, Saakashvili, 46, who has become increasingly unpopular at home, stepped down in November after serving two terms as president. His rule was defined by closer ties with the US and deteriorated relations with Russia which hit a low after a brief military conflict in August 2008 over South Ossetia.
The former Georgian leader, who has not been seen in Georgia since last month, will conduct major addresses and lectures on European governance and other contemporary international and regional issues at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, the school said in a statement.
“I am very honored to be working with The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, one of the greatest institutions specialized in these fields in the world,” Saakashvili said in a statement. “I am back to my roots as my educational background has everything to do with law and diplomacy. I will also get a chance to share the practical experience I acquired throughout the last several years.”
Saakashvili studied law at the prestigious Kiev University Institute of International Relations and received his master of laws from Columbia University. He studied law at the doctoral level at the George Washington University National Center of Law in Washington, D.C. and obtained a diploma in Comparative Law of Human Rights from The International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
In his farewell presidential address to the nation in October, the Georgian leader said: “I do not need a rest, but time has come when you have to rest from me.”
