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Georgia in the Wider Europe context: Bridging divergent interpretations
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Commission Working Paper. Country report Georgia. March 2005.
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In the present report, the Commission provides an assessment of bilateral relations between the EU and Georgia. It reflects progress under the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement, and describes the current situation in areas of particular interest for this partnership: the development of political institutions based on the values – democracy, the rule of law, human rights – enshrined in the Agreement, regional stability and co-operation in justice and home affairs, and economic and social reforms that will create new opportunities for development and modernisation, for further liberalisation of trade and for gradual participation in the Internal Market. The report provides guidance for the Commission recommendations on developing joint ENP action plans and serves as a basis for assessing future progress in the Union’s relations with Georgia.
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Georgia and the European Neighbourhood Policy. Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper, 15 June 2005.
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Since the Rose Revolution, the Georgian government has seemed ready to reform its laws, policies, and practices affecting human rights to bring them into line with European standards. Although the government is displaying the political will for such reforms, past experience suggests that the process will not be easy. Bi-lateral and multilateral assistance to Georgia will be essential for ensuring the success of this reform. The European Union’s Neighbourhood Policy Action Plan for Georgia could be a useful mechanism for promotion of reforms, if used effectively. The European Union's decision to use benchmarks in the Action Plan is therefore a welcome step. It should allow relations between Georgia and the European Union to become more focused, setting clear expectations and goals in exchange for future benefits, if those goals are achieved. The Human Rights Watch analyzes the implementation modes of the Action Plan and different aspects that it contains.
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The European Union: Foreign Policy Priority of the South Caucasus Countries. Conference Materials Tbilisi, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 30-31October 2004.
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With the participation of the South Caucasus Countries in the New Neighbours Programme of the European Union after the so-called Rose-Revolution in Georgia, the topic of the conference not only continues Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung longstanding endeavour to promote regional cooperation and development, but also sets the tune for future emphasis of its work in the region. With participants from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Great Britain, Germany, the Baltics and the EC Delegation in Tbilisi, the topics of EU foreign policy priority towards the South Caucasus were discussed during two days of the conference.
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Leonard, Mark and Grant, Charles. Georgia and the EU: Can Europe’s neighbourhood policy deliver? Policy brief, Center for European Reform, 30 September 2005.
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Georgia is an important test for Europe’s neighbourhood policy. It is a country whose geography, history and culture are in many respects European. Its role as an energy transit route, its location close to Russia, and its ‘frozen’ conflicts give it strategic importance. Georgia’s current government is committed to reforms and democracy, and has shown a strong desire to be a part of the European club. But so far, the EU reluctance to offer the prospect of membership and its fear of upsetting Russia have prevented it from thinking strategically about Georgia. Nor has the EU used its transformative power to underpin reforms in Georgia. In this paper, the authors argue that the EU could have a major impact on Georgia if it linked incentives to the reform process, acknowledged Georgia’s European identity, and kept open the prospect of eventual membership. This would help the EU to play a meaningful role in resolving the frozen conflicts and use the ‘European neighbourhood policy’ to ensure that Georgia stays on a democratic track.
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Mchedlishvili, Irakli. Georgia and the Caucasus: search for the principles for the regional security concept, Center for Peace and International Relations Studies, 1999.
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The question of foreign orientation has always been a subject of acute discussions in Georgia. Being a part of the national self-identification problem, it concerns almost all strata of the Georgian community. What country is to be a guarantor of Georgia's security-Russia or the West? Does the way to the West lays on Turkey? Is the Caucasian co-operation capable to guarantee the national security? These are the questions the Georgians and their foreign partners are concerned for. The present article analyses formation of political orientations in the Caucasus, evaluates attempts to shape Caucasian regional and national security systems and stresses on a great importance of co-operation between the Caucasian nations. It also looks into the role of Russia, Turkey and Iran in the regional security system and suggests principles of relations between the Caucasus and non-regional (Western) countries.
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Rondeli, Alexander. “The choice of Independent Georgia”, in The Security of the Caspian Sea Region, ed. by Gennady Chufrin, Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 195-211.
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This paper describes how a small and weak independent Georgia, almost a quasi-state tom apart by internal contradictions and economic problems, has struggled to define its strategic orientation and main national security and foreign policy priorities. The objective is to identify alternatives that Georgia may consider in the process of strategic decision making and to pinpoint the factors that determine its strategic and security choices. The sections briefly describe the main political events that illustrate Georgia's recent strategic choices and analyse Georgia's behaviour as a small state, its relations with its powerful neighbour, Russia, and the impact of regional oil politics.
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Rondeli, Alexander. Georgia: foreign policy and national security priorities, Center for Peace and International Relations Studies, 1998.
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A 1998 study of Georgia’s national security priorities calls for development of an autonomous strategic culture to support the formation and implementation of an independent foreign policy. It recalls the beginning of Georgia's sovereign existence that could be characterized as the most disastrous of all the post-Soviet states. The author also discusses the biggest hindrances to Georgia's prospects of developing into a modern European-type state - fragile statehood, and internal political weakness, also partly due to the lack of democratic traditions and civil elements within its political culture. The article in general explores the history of emergence of post-Soviet states trying to develop democratic societies and market economies and find their place and role in the international political and economic systems.
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Tarkhan-Mouravi, George. The Georgian-Abkhazian conflict in a regional context, Institute for Policy Studies Georgia, 1996.
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This study presents some aspects of the Caucasian context of regional conflicts by analyzing possible explanations for high concentration of conflicts in the Caucasus - Russian secret service, military or political forces fomenting antagonism, aggressive culture of the inhabitants of this region – and argues that the inability of ethnic groups to coexist should be seen as the result of failed institutional regulations rather than inborn qualities or geopolitical factors. The analysis of the roots of conflict in the Caucasus also considers the role of external manipulation (the "hidden hand" factor) and its relation to (specific) internal “spontaneous” players in the region, as well as the role of intrinsic, spontaneous causes and deliberate external decisions. The paper also stresses the utmost importance of identifying real interests of the opposing population groups which may differ both from the declared goals and from the particular interests of the political élites. It is also argued that a specific nature of the Caucasian context should not be either underestimated or overestimated, in particular Caucasian cultural traditions and the geostrategic importance of the region.
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Bartuzi, Wojciech and Strachota, Krzysztof. “Bottom line of the year”, Centre for Eastern Studies, 2005.
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The paper is dedicated to the first anniversary of Mikhail Saakashvili's victory in the presidential election and evaluates the first year of Saakashvili's presidency which “should undoubtedly be regarded as a success”. The authors argue that most of the "black scenarios" that had been projected failed to materialize: no civil war broke out even though the situation was extremely tense on several occasions, the ruling team did not disintegrate, and the country experienced no economic breakdown. Furthermore, new leaders managed to peacefully solve the problem of Ajaria, obtained substantial amounts of foreign humanitarian, economic and military assistance, initiated several major reforms and firmly curtailed corruption at all levels even if they frequently resorted to measures not in keeping with Western standards. In 2004, Tbilisi’s position on the international stage has been reinforced (USA, NATO, EU), but at the same time its relations with Russia deteriorated. The authors conclude that, although the authorities in Tbilisi still face a number of challenges, the first year of Mikhail Saakashvili's term of office has undoubtedly been successful for Georgia.
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Wolczuk, Kataryna. Integration without Europeanisation: Ukraine and its Policy towards the European Union, Working paper of the European University Institute, Robert Schumann Centre for Advanced Studies, October 2004.
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This paper examines the progress of and conditions for Europeanisation in one of EU’s eastern neighbours. Since the late 1990s, Ukraine has regularly expressed its willingness to participate in European integration via EU membership. Yet these foreign policy declarations have not been accompanied by the necessary acceleration of domestic reforms. The paper argues that Ukraine has sought integration with the EU – but without undergoing Europeanisation – bringing extensive change in institutions and policies at the domestic level in line with EU’s more or less explicit targets. This is despite the fact that this is a model of proven utility as evidenced by its implementation in East-Central European states. This paper aims to explain why the progress of Ukraine’s integration with the EU has been confined to foreign policy declarations by exploring the role of sources of Ukraine’s policy towards the EU and the reasons for Ukraine’s inability to enact the European choice in domestic reforms. Finally, the conditions under which a shift to declarations to actual Europeanisation in non-EU post-Soviet countries might occur will be identified by extrapolating from the insights drawn from the literature on EU eastern enlargement in the context of the EU’s new Neighbourhood Policy.
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