Garentina "Tina" Kraja is an independent researcher and consultant on issues ranging from transitional justice to violent extremism and malign influence. She advised Kosovo’s President Atifete Jahjaga (2011-2016) on foreign policy and security issues and lectured at R.I.T. Kosovo on religion and globalization, international relations, and politics.
She started her career as a journalist covering the war in Kosovo, initially for Koha Ditore, Kosovo’s first independent newspaper, and later as a correspondent for The Associated Press for nearly a decade. Tina was one of the first journalists to report on the emergence of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army and extensively documented war crimes during the war. As the war intensified, she was eventually forced to Macedonia, where she continued her reporting as a refugee. After the war, she returned to Kosovo and continued to report on the establishment of the international protectorate, the war’s violent aftermath and talks that led to Kosovo’s declaration of independence.