Dr. Yelena Nikolayevna Zabortseva's academic and educational background is in international relations and international economics. She has pursued over 20 years of successful career in government (including on senior leadership roles), risk-assessment, academia, international forums(such as WEF) and international consultancy.

Following completion of her PhD from the University of Sydney, she was lecturing World Politics there. Currently she works at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, APS Reform Office. Prior to joining Australian public service, she was holding positions of the Associate Professor (Dotcehnt) at Kazakh Economic University and a lecturer at Kazakh-British Technical University, as well as the Head of IR&PA Office at Kazakhstan’s Financial Superintendent. Her Master’s degree in World Politics and in Conference Translations she hss conducted at MGIMO, Russia.

Yelena’s latest monograph “Russia's Relations with Kazakhstan: Re-thinking Ex-Soviet Transitions in the Emerging World System” is based upon her PhD thesis and is available via  https://www.routledge.com/Russias-Relations-with-Kazakhstan-Rethinking-Ex-Soviet-Transitions-in/Zabortseva/p/book/9781138950429. In this book, the role of specific factors in the formation of the turbulent regional system was explored in several spheres: political, military and security, Kazakhstan’s nuclear withdrawal, ethnicity and national identity, economic, foreign policies, regionalism and international trends.

Dr. Zabortseva is the author of more than 40 articles and monographs on international relations, international economics (international competitiveness and investment flows), post-Soviet regional studies (including ideological formations), security studies, and global peace and conflict studies. She has presented papers at more than twenty top international conferences in UK, USA, Russia, Kazakhstan, New Zealand and Australia.

Yelena is an admirer of art, has researched and published on the role of art in symbolism/soft-power, and draws herself in oil in her free time.

She has appeared on the ABC and SBS as a commentator on Russia-West relations, and on Kazakhstan’s affairs.