Fianl Activity and Publication Report
This report provides a summary of research-related activities during and after the fellowship year.
I. Activities undertaken
First five months of the project (from April through August) has been devoted to the preparatory work. Primary tasks in this period were:
Development and design of personal website
Procurement of research equipment/accessories and subscription to Internet service
Purchase of books and other research-related materials
Literature review
Development of research strategy
Drawing up an outline of the research paper and the policy study
Apart from carrying out the above-mentioned tasks I took part in couple of international conferences/workshops and a joint meeting of the WG The Challenge of Wider Europe and the CEPS's staff (for more detailed account of project activities in this period please refer to the Interim Activity Report).
Next three months (from September through November) the project activities were primarily focused on field research, involving both interviews and consultations, and collecting data through analysis of literature as well as policy documentation.
The interviews were obtained from independent experts and scholars who work on EU-related problematique. Particularly, the interviewees were asked to provide information about general EU/ENP-awareness, as well as to make an overview of existing training and research on European Affairs.
Consultations with officials from the State Minister's Office on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration as well as from relevant Parliamentary Committees and line ministries were focused on the level of preparedness of the Georgian government for upcoming negotiations with the EC on the ENP Action Plan.
A great deal of time was devoted to the examination of policy documents such as drafts of ENP action plans, EC country report on Georgia, various EC communications related to ENP, as well as scholarly and policy papers produced by various think tanks and research centers.
Following two months (December-January) were given up to writing the policy study paper. This was a rather tricky exercise since the political context has become changing rapidly prior and after the negotiation round on ENP Action Plan. Finally, the first draft of the paper was ready for submission to the IPF and Group Adviser by the end of January.
The last two months of the Fellowship year (February-March) were devoted to fine-tuning the policy study and the research paper. The results of the second round of negotiations on the ENP Action Plan have required to make additional changes in the existing drafts so that to update papers to the current state of affairs (the third and possibly the last round of negotiations is scheduled for the end of May).
Other activities during the fellowship year included:
Participation in conferences/roundtables as a presenter of papers
Revision of the teaching course on 'Globalization and development' based on the research findings
Revision of the training module 'Georgia's transit capacity and EU' based on the research findings
II. Publication Report
The major written product of the project has been the draft of the policy study which came out at a very important stage of the policy-making process in Georgia. The timing of drafting it has coincided with the beginning of the negotiations on the ENP Action Plan between the Georgian government and the EC.
After the mentioned negotiations are over a policy brief will be produced targeting the next stage of policy cycle, namely the implementation phase of the ENP Action Plan. Also, at this stage the final draft of the research paper will be ready for publication.
Additionally, an article 'Georgia on the International Scene' was submitted for publication to the bilingual (English-Russian) Yearbook of the The Central Asia and Caucasus.
III. Planned activities
Most of the activities planned beyond the fellowship year are related to publication and advocacy. As mentioned, a policy brief and a research paper will be published this summer. As for advocacy, a series of activities are planned for this summer and fall:
(a) IPF advocacy training sessions will be attended (April);
(b) A advocacy strategy plan will be developed (May);
(c) Will participate in the IPF-Woodrow Wilson Center conference 'Euro-Islam', followed by a presentation of the IPF online alumni journal Policy Perspectives; Apart from this event, several meetings in Washington DC and New York will be held for advocacy purposes, including a talk at OSI-New York (June);
(d) Will present my research findings to policy and research communities at the advocacy meetings to be organised by OSI-Brussels, CEPS, and OSI-Paris (June);
(e) Will participate in an advocacy meeting of the WG The Challenge of Wider Europe (October)
In the course of 2006, as the ENP Action Plan's implementation strategy will be developed, the possibilities of further research will be looked into.
