Gela Bezhuashvili (born March 1, 1967) is a Georgian

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 politician and the current head of the Georgian Intelligence Service

Georgian Intelligence Service

The Georgian Intelligence Service is a national intelligence agency of Georgia, with its headquarters in Tbilisi. The current head of the service is Gela Bezhuashvili, appointed in 2008....

 since February 1, 2008. He formerly served as Minister of Defense from February 2004 to June 2004, Secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia

National Security Council of Georgia

The National Security Council of Georgia is an advisory body for the President of Georgia dealing with matters of national security. The current Secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia is Giga Bokeria.-Legal authority:...

 from June 2004 to October 2005, and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia from October 19, 2005 to January 31, 2008.

Education

He was born in the townlet of Manglisi, Georgia, in 1967. In 1991, he graduated from the Ukrainian

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 Institute of International Relations and International Law, Kiev State University, Faculty of International Law. In 1997 obtained Master of Law degree, LL.M-International and Comparative Law, Southern Methodist University

Southern Methodist University

Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...

 (SMU) School of Law

Dedman School of Law

The Southern Methodist University School of Law, commonly referred to as SMU Law School or Dedman School of Law is a prominent professional graduate law school located in Dallas, Texas. Founded in February 1925, the school remains the only law school in Dallas...

, Dallas, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. In 2003 he entered the JFK School of Government, Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 as a mid-career student and is a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree candidate.

Career

Bezhuashvili started his career at the Georgian Foreign Ministry in the early 1990s, including being the Envoy Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary to Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

 between 1993 and 1996. Throughout the 1990s, he was also actively involved in cooperation with the Council of Europe

Council of Europe

The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...

 (CoE) and served as a chief negotiator at the accession of Georgia to the CoE in 1999. He then served as deputy Defense Minister from 2000 to 2004, and Defense Minister from February 2004 to June 2004, being the first civilian to be appointed to this post in post-Soviet Georgia. From June 2004 to October 2005, he was the Secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia

National Security Council of Georgia

The National Security Council of Georgia is an advisory body for the President of Georgia dealing with matters of national security. The current Secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia is Giga Bokeria.-Legal authority:...

, and replaced Salome Zourabichvili

Salome Zourabichvili

Salomé Zourabichvili is a Georgian politician, from 2004 to 2005 Foreign Minister of Georgia and a former diplomat in the French service. Currently she is the Coordinator of the Panel of Experts assisting the UN Security Council’s Iran Sanctions Committee.-Biography:Zourabichvili was born in...

 as Minister of Foreign Affairs on October 19, 2005.

In January 2008, he was replaced with David Bakradze

David Bakradze

David Shekris Bakradze is a Georgian politician and diplomat who has been serving as the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia since June 7, 2008....

 as a foreign minister, and was reported to have decided to quit public life in favour of the private sector. On January 30, 2008, he was appointed a head of the Intelligence Department of Georgia, succeeding Anna Zhvania

Anna Zhvania

Anna Zhvania is the former head of the foreign intelligence branch of Georgia in 2006-2008, being the first female to have been appointed to this post in Georgia. She had also formerly served as an advisor to the President of Georgia on civic integration and programme coordinator of the Liberty...

.

Since 2000, along with his official duties, he was involved in scientific research on International Law issues. He is author of the book "International legal aspects of Georgian Foreign Policy," 2003 and a number of articles. He holds the diplomatic rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and the civil service rank of State Chancellor.

Bezhuashvili is married and has two sons. He speaks Georgian

Georgian language

Georgian is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.Georgian is the primary language of about 4 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad...

, English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

 and Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

. His brother David is co-owner of the television stations Mze TV and Rustavi 2

Rustavi 2

Rustavi 2 Broadcasting Company , better known as Rustavi 2, is the most successful private television broadcasting company in Georgia. The Rustavi, based in Tbilisi, was founded in 1994 in the town of Rustavi. It is a privately owned free to air terrestrial broadcaster that currently reaches around...

 as well as member of the Georgian parliament (United National Movement).

External links

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• List of Prominent SMU People