Nicholas Alan Clayton is an independent journalist covering the South Caucasus for various international news organizations including National Public Radio, Asia Times and GlobalPost. Clayton currently also works as the senior editor of Kanal PIK TV English in Tbilisi, Georgia.After studying abroad in France in high school, Clayton gained an interdisciplinary degree in French and Visual Media and a second major in Russian Studies from American University in Washington, DC. After spending a year studying the Russian language and NATO-Russian relations at Hertzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia, Clayton moved to the South Caucasus. There he has covered the dynamic and changing region that is crisscrossed by strategic pipelines, tangled alliances and ancient cultures since June 2009.