Cristina Maza

I’m a journalist, writer, editor, and analyst with over a decade of experience covering international affairs. I also provide editorial consulting services to organizations, brands, and institutions whose missions I believe in. 

Through my work, I operate at the intersection of policy, culture, and human experience, drawing on my understanding of all three to deliver powerful stories that shift narratives and foster a deeper understanding of society. I help readers make sense of global affairs through human-centered stories that illuminate how events, identity, and policy shape each other across borders.

Currently, I am based in Berlin, Germany, where I work as an editor for the Europe-focused news organization Euractiv, helping reporters craft sharper stories on European defence policy and decision-making in Brussels. 

In 2023, with the support of George Mason University, I founded Lazo Magazine, an experimental online publication that explores multiculturalism and crossing borders. 

I also write a popular newsletter about international news. You can sign up here. 

My journalism career began in London in 2012, when I decided to leave academia and begin writing for a wider audience. My career has unfolded across several continents since then. 

Before relocating to Berlin, I spent four years reporting on foreign policy and defense for National Journal, based in the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C. 

In my role at National Journal, I regularly interviewed U.S. lawmakers and foreign policy leaders, including the European High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas; Spain’s Arancha González Laya; Estonia’s Margus Tsahkana; Ukraine’s Oksana Markarova; Poland’s Radek Sikorski; and Belarus’s Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, among many others. I also covered NATO summits, the Munich Security Conference, and other international events. 

Over the past several years, I was a Transatlantic Media Fellow with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, where I covered the refugee crisis in Poland following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I was a participant in the Austrian-American Media Fellowship, where I wrote about Vienna’s history of military neutrality. I traveled to South Korea for the East-West Center’s Korea-United States Journalist Exchange, where I reported on North Korean defectors and popular support for Korean reunification. Additionally, I participated in the RIAS Berlin German-American Journalist Exchange Program, covering the future of the NATO alliance from Brussels and the rise of the far right in Germany. 

I frequently appear on podcasts and radio programs, including the BBC and SiriusXM’s The Julie Mason Show. 

I enjoy telling personal stories that illustrate broader policy issues. I have interviewed Cambodian women who were trafficked to China and sold as brides and profiled female activists fighting illegal logging in the Cambodian jungles. In Texas, I reported on efforts to re-settle Afghan refugees after the U.S. military withdrew from their country. My investigative series into Cambodia’s unregulated surrogacy industry won a Society of Publishers in Asia award for editorial excellence. 

Throughout my career, I’ve worked as a staff reporter, editor, and freelance journalist. Some previous roles include: 

• Foreign policy and world news correspondent for Newsweek Magazine.
• Washington, D.C., correspondent for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).
• Reporter and editor for the Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia. 
• Reporting fellow for the Christian Science Monitor in Washington, D.C. 
• Contributing editor for United Explanations, a multi-lingual online publication that covers international affairs. 

As a freelance journalist, my work has appeared in Foreign Policy Magazine, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Al Jazeera, The New Republic, Roads & Kingdoms, The Institute for War and Peace Reporting, The Diplomat, VICE, and World Politics Review, among many others. 

A graduate of the University College London’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies, I speak English, Spanish, and Serbian, and I am continually working to improve my Russian and German. 

Please reach out with assignments, media requests, story tips, or just to have a chat. c.maza@protonmail.com Interested in working with me? You can book a call on my contact page.