Iveta Cherneva

Iveta Cherneva is an author and analyst in the areas of geopolitics, foreign policy, security, human rights, and politics.

Cherneva's opinions and commentaries appear in Foreign Policy, New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Euronews, National Interest, Salon, The Guardian, The Geopolitics and Novinite.

Her latest book is “America in free fall: the 2022 and 2024 elections and Trump’s return” in which three years in advance, Cherneva predicted correctly that the battle in the 2024 presidential elections will be between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and that Trump would win. That was when almost everyone had written Trump off.

Iveta’s previous book, “Trump, European security and Turkey”, became an Amazon best-seller in the category international organizations and was featured on the Times Square billboards in New York. Kirkus Reviews said that the book is "a thorough, illuminating overview of major geopolitical shifts", "the author’s analysis is that of a skilled diplomat" and that "Cherneva has established herself as a leading voice of a new generation of foreign relations experts".

Iveta co-authored her first book at the age of 25, delving into the regulation of the private security industry, based on her experience with the industry in Washington DC.

Iveta often appears on TV and radio for a variety of international and Bulgarian media including Euronews Bulgaria, Focus, DW, Voice of America, btv, Bulgarian National Radio, Bulgarian National Television, Darik Radio, Studio Actualno, Bulgaria on Air TV, Eurocom TV, BSTV, TV1, TV Plus, Code Fashion TV and various YouTube podcasts.

Her quotes appear in the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, New York Times, the Washington Post, Nikkei Asia, El Pais, Aftenposten, Tribune de Geneve. Her analyses are published in the Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Modern Diplomacy, Raw Story, AlterNet, LSE, Euractiv, Emerging Europe, Jurist, The Brussels Report, The Crime Report, American Thinker, Evening Standard, MSN, South China Morning Post, Daily Express, New Europe, Ceylon Today, the International Affairs Forum in Washington DC, Frognews, OFFnews, Safe News and others.

Iveta Cherneva was a finalist for UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of speech in 2020. She has worked for five UN agencies (including the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights), in US Congress (for the Chairman of the International Organizations and Human Rights Subcommittee), for Oxford University, the International Peace Institute, the Geneva Academy for International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, and for other organizations. She founded the first ever human trafficking program for the private military and security industry in Washington DC in 2007.

Iveta's books and articles are used in teaching, including at Columbia University and the HEI Graduate Institute of International Studies. They are reviewed and cited by the Council of Europe, IOM, Harvard, Cambridge, Forbes, Kirkus Reviews, Financial World and others.

Iveta Cherneva's academic articles are published by peer-reviewed journals such as The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, the Buffalo Human Rights Law Review, the Essex Human Rights Law Review, the Intercultural Human Rights Law Review, the Transatlantic Studies Association, in Broadening the Scope of Human Trafficking by Carolina University Press, and the Journal of International Peace Operations. Her work has garnered over a hundred academic citations. Her articles and commentaries have been translated and appeared in over 10 languages globally.

Iveta holds a Master in International Affairs from the HEI Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from University College Utrecht. Iveta studied US foreign policy in the Washington Semester by American University in Washington DC. She studied politics and international relations at the University of California, and law at Georgetown Law School as the 2007 William Donner Human Rights Fellow.

Cherneva was commended for leadership by the NATO Secretary General at the NATO Chicago Summit in 2012 where Iveta was the young NATO Secretary General as a Young Atlanticist of the Atlantic Council in Washington DC. She has also been commended for leadership in combating human trafficking by US Congressman Chris Smith.

Iveta was named Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum in 2014. She has advised the UN Working Group on business and human rights and President Obama's action plan for business and human rights.

Iveta's life and career are the subject of a short film by Bulgaria on Air TV.

Iveta lives in Sofia, Bulgaria where she was born and raised before the global chapters of her life. She has studied and worked around the world in several of the global diplomatic capitals including Washington DC, Geneva, New York, Stockholm, the Hague. Iveta speaks English, Bulgarian, French, German, Russian, Swedish and Dutch – at various levels.

You can see Iveta at the red carpets of the Cannes Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival, in Monte Carlo, at Paris Fashion Week and Sofia Fashion Week. Iveta's hobbies include dance, swimming, spa and fashion.