Professor / Board Member

Mikheil (Misha) Darchiashvili brings over 25 years of expertise in international development, international relations, and national security, with significant experience as a senior government official.

His diplomatic career began in 2001 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, where he held various roles within the Political-Military Department. He later served at the Georgian Mission to NATO, based at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, first as a First Secretary and subsequently as a Political Counselor (2004-2008).

From 2008 to 2013, Mr. Darchiashvili worked at the Embassy of Georgia to the United States in Washington, D.C., initially as Senior Counselor, then as Minister Plenipotentiary.

Following this, he served as Georgia’s Deputy Defense Minister from 2013 to 2014, where he oversaw international relations and defense policy planning, focusing on Georgia’s NATO membership aspirations and U.S.-Georgia defense cooperation.

For the past 10 years (2015-2025), Mr. Darchiashvili was actively involved in USAID-funded programs focused on good governance development at both the central and local levels in Georgia. From 2015 to 2022, he served as Governance Program Manager for the USAID Good Governance Initiative. Subsequently, from 2022 until March 2025, he held the position of Director of Subnational Governance Systems within the USAID Local Governance Program.

He also served as a Senior Expert for the EU-funded project "Support to External Security Sector Oversight in Georgia", managed by the Delegation of the European Union to Georgia and implemented by the GOPA-PACE Consortium.

He serves as Chair of the Government Board of the Atlantic Council of Georgia and is a professor and member of the Governing Board at the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA).

Mr Darchiashvili holds a master’s degree in public administration from GIPA and is an alumnus of the Leadership Academy for Development (LAD) at Stanford University’s CDDRL and EPRC.