Thomas de Waal

Thomas de Waal
De Waal at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC, 20 June 2013
Born	Nottingham, UK
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
Occupation	Journalist
Notable work	Black Garden (2003)

Thomas Patrick Lowndes de Waal (born 1966) is a British journalist and writer on the Caucasus. He is best known for his 2003 book Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War.

Thomas was born in Nottingham, England. He is the son of Esther Aline (née Lowndes-Moir), a writer on religion, and Anglican priest Victor de Waal. He is the brother of Africa specialist Alex de Waal, barrister John de Waal, and potter and writer Edmund de Waal.

Through his grandmother, Elisabeth de Waal née Ephrussi, Thomas de Waal is related to the Ephrussi family who were wealthy Jewish bankers and art patrons in pre-World War II Europe and whose fortunes started in 19th-century Odessa. He had done some research on the family's Russian branch, and helped in the researches on family history by his brother Edmund de Waal which led to the publication of the book "The Hare with Amber Eyes".

Thomas de Waal graduated from Balliol College, Oxford with a First Class Degree in Modern Languages (Russian and Modern Greek).

He has reported for, amongst others, the BBC World Service, the Moscow Times, and The Times. He was a Caucasus editor at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in London until December 2008, and later as a research associate with the peace-building NGO, Conciliation Resources. Currently he is a senior associate in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, specialising primarily in the South Caucasus region.