Previously held posts at NATO, EU and FCO and more recently as an analyst for the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation. She has studied European Studies, languages (French, German, Russian and Kazakh), comparative politics and international relations at Bath, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the London School of Economics. With research awards from the British Government, Leverhulme Trust and Economic and Social Research Council, she has conducted two years' field work in Central Asia. Her principle research interests are in the politics of Central Asia, post-communist regime and elite change, and more broadly territorial politics. Current research and books in progress include, Kazakhstan: Centre-Periphery Relations (Brookings Institution and Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2000), (ed.) Power and Change in Central Asia (Routledge, forthcoming) and (ed. with Mary Buckley) Kosovo: Perceptions of War and Its Aftermath (Continuum, forthcoming).