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 and institutions whose missions I believe in. 

Through my work, I operate at the intersection of policy, politics, and human experience, drawing on my understanding of all three to deliver powerful stories that help readers make sense of global affairs. 

I’m currently based in Berlin, Germany, where I work as an editor for the Europe-focused news organization Rapporteur**, helping reporters craft sharper stories on European policy and decision-making in Brussels. 

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 left academia and began writing for a wider audience. Since then, my career has unfolded across several continents. 

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; Poland’s Radek Sikorski; and Belarus’s Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, among 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 participated 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 resettle 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 multilingual 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 or email hello@cristinamaza.com.