This article explores the process of creeping radicalization within the Georgian Orthodox Church and its implications for building societal resilience in the country. In doing so, it aims to fill the ...gap in the literature on the role of dominant religious organizations in resilience building in Georgia and in the broader post-Soviet region. Our analysis ascribes a mostly negative impact to the Georgian Orthodox Church on the country’s societal resilience. We identify two possible mechanisms with which the Georgian Orthodox Church undermines societal resilience in Georgia: (1) by decreasing general trust in society and (2) by inspiring anti-Western narratives, which undermine the basis of Georgia’s national identity.
By unpacking major views of and dynamics towards the Black Sea region from the Georgian perspective, this analysis addresses two questions: What are Georgia’s key perceptions of the Black Sea region? ...And which role does the Black Sea play in strengthening Georgia’s economic and security resilience in a quickly changing environment marked by geopolitical and geo-economic competition? The article concludes with thoughts on the region’s future and the role of the EU, Georgia’s closest partner, in it.
Bandwagoning by stealth refers to a situation when a government of a small state tries to accommodate a great power turned to aggressor amid a strong public opposition. We explain it with the example ...of Georgia's foreign policy towards Russia in the period of 2012-2022. It is argued that Georgia's attempt for rapprochement to Russia since 2012 can be explained by two unit-level variables: (1) a belief of the country's leadership in the need to accommodate Russia and (2) a societal and public opposition to the Russia-accommodating policy. A conflictual dynamic between the Russia-accommodating government and Russia-sceptic public resulted in bandwagoning by stealth - a defacto and partial bandwagoning with Russia without formally changing Georgia's declared pro-Western foreign policy.
This paper seeks to investigate the role of the international environment in the democratic transition process in the post-Soviet South Caucasus states. Based on the famous theoretical model of ...linkage and leverage, the influence of two main regional actors, Russia and the West (In this paper, 'the West' is conceptualized as the sum of influences stemming from the EU, the US and the multinational institutions dominated by the Western states (e.g. NATO, the IMF, the World Bank, and EBRD).), are explained and conceptualized. The paper argues that competitive authoritarianism, the form of political regime that is believed to be predominant in the region, is the result of the flawed democratization strategy pursued by the EU and the US on the one hand and the influence of Russia, the counter-hegemonic power, on the other hand, which explicitly or implicitly decreases the transformative power of the West.
What explains change and continuity in the foreign policy behavior of small states? Given the proliferation of small states over the past century, this topic has received relatively little systematic ...attention. When researchers do focus on small states, the emphasis has been on external and international factors, and the primary conclusion has been that small states are more likely to bandwagon with threatening great powers than to balance against them. In this article, we suggest that state- and individual-level variables can play a greater role in explaining the foreign policy behavior of small states and that small states sometimes choose to balance rather than bandwagon, especially when elite ideology is deeply embedded in formulating foreign policy. We develop this claim in terms of elite ideas about the identity and purpose of the state and examine its plausibility using primary sources and exclusive interviews with the security and foreign policy elite in Georgia. We find that this approach offers a more plausible explanation for Georgia's otherwise puzzling foreign policy behavior than frameworks that focus on the international or regional system. Although Georgia may be the exception that proves the rule, it can advance an understanding of the conditions under which standard explanations of small-state foreign policy behavior may miss their predictive mark and when incorporating the role of elite ideas can provide additional explanatory leverage.
Unlike structural realism, neoclassical realism focuses on how the interaction between systemic and unit-level variables influences foreign policy. This article assesses neoclassical realism against ...two alternative accounts - balance of threat and economic dependence - to explain change in Georgia's foreign policy. While structural realism highlights how the external security environment shapes general tendencies in foreign policy, specific strategies depend largely on unit-level factors, specifically elite cohesion and state capacity. The analysis of primary sources and exclusive interviews with high-level policy-makers suggests that neoclassical realism affords a more nuanced and precise account of foreign policy change over time than structural realism.
This article explores Ukraine's and Georgia's attempts to reshape the dynamics of their relations with the EU by moving from Europe's peripheral status towards becoming part of Europe. The drive of ...the two post-Soviet countries towards European core is explained by both consequentialist (seeking defence from Russia) and ideational (Europe as civilization choice) incentives. The Europeanization school of the neoinstitutionalist paradigm is used to back the main argument. Finally, as the article concludes, next to Russia as a veto player, the socio-political underdevelopment and lack of good governance make both countries less attractive and complicates their quest to escape the European margins and becoming part of the European core.
Abbreviations: AA - Association Agreements: CIS - Commonwealth of Independent States: DCFTA - Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area: EaP - Eastern Partnership: ENP - European Neighbourhood Policy: EU - European Union: NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization: RCI - Rational Choice Institutionalism: SI - Sociological Institutionalism
This paper argues that the European Union"s (EU) performance in promoting democracy in its neighbourhood is not only compromised by the lack of a membership perspective but the selective sanctioning ...of non-compliance with democracy standards caused by conflicting foreign policy objectives. We identify two conditions for the EU"s consistent application of democratic conditionality: the absence of a stability- democratisation dilemma and the presence of pro-democratic reform coalitions. If neither of these conditions is present, the EU is more likely to act as a status-quo than a transformative power prioritising (authoritarian) stability over uncertain (democratic) change. (Author abstract)
This paper argues that the European Union's (EU) performance in promoting democracy in its neighbourhood is not only compromised by the lack of a membership perspective but the selective sanctioning ...of non-compliance with democracy standards caused by conflicting foreign policy objectives. We identify two conditions for the EU's consistent application of democratic conditionality: the absence of a stability-democratisation dilemma and the presence of pro-democratic reform coalitions. If neither of these conditions is present, the EU is more likely to act as a status-quo than a transformative power prioritising (authoritarian) stability over uncertain (democratic) change.
