Michael Z. Wise writes about architecture, culture and foreign affairs. He is the author of Capital Dilemma: Germany's Search for a New Architecture of Democracy (Princeton Architectural Press) and is a contributing editor at Travel + Leisure magazine. His writing has appeared in many publications including The Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and ARTnews.

After graduating with honors from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Wise worked in Washington, D.C. for The Wilson Quarterly and The Associated Press. He was posted for eight years as a foreign correspondent in Vienna, Prague, and London, reporting for Reuters and The Washington Post. Wise wrote extensively on the dissident movement in Czechoslovakia and the fall of communism there, as well as the controversy surrounding Kurt Waldheim's presidency and the rise of right-wing extremism in Austria.

Michael Z. Wise is a recipient of a John J. McCloy Fellowship in Journalism from the American Council on Germany and a research fellowship from the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany. As a research fellow at the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University, he conceived and organized "Arts & Minds: A Conference on Cultural Diplomacy amid Global Tensions."