Political Developments in Georgia Cornell, Svante E
Demokratizatsiya (Washington, D.C.),
09/2022, Letnik:
30, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Cornell examines the political developments in Georgia as of 2022. He charts how a blend of personalism and opposition weakness has impeded anticipated progress toward democratic consolidation in ...Georgia since the August 2008 war. The centralization that began under Mikheil Saakashvili in order to "push reforms through recalcitrant institutions" only intensified under Bidzina Ivanishvili, who leveraged his personal fortune to defeat Saakashvili. The years since have seen the spread of clientelistic practices that have jeopardized previous gains, while the government's continued pronouncements of a commitment to Euro-Atlanticism have been contradicted by efforts to "normalize" relations with Russia. Indeed, Georgia has seen such backsliding on key democratic indicators that it was not granted EU candidate status alongside Ukraine and Moldova in the summer of 2022, despite having long been seen as the frontrunner for this status.
Azerbaijan, a small post-Soviet republic located on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, has outsized importance becaus of its strategic location at the corssroads of Europe and Asia, its oil ...resources, and
A focus on the minds of future generations is a cornerstone for every ideological
movement. Small wonder then, that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the
Justice and Development Party (AKP) ...government have taken a strong interest
in the field of education in Turkey. Erdoğan and the government have introduced
substantial reforms as part of a broader project to Islamize education in the
country, of which religious brotherhoods and communities also play an important
role. But the results are far from encouraging: While the government is heavily
funding the Islamic education options, graduates of Islamic schools fare poorly
in exams – and Turkey’s schools are sinking compared to international standards.
This book argues that American and European policies toward Central Asia and the Caucasus suffer from both conceptual and structural impediments. It traces the framework of Western policies to the ...1975 Helsinki Final Act, which resulted in the stovepiping of relations into political, economic, and democracy categories – and in often uncoordinated or contradictory policies. While the authors embrace the goal of promoting human rights and democracy, they argue that the antagonistic methods adopted to advance this goal have proven counter-productive. They propose that Western governments work with the regional states rather than on or against them and that instead of focusing directly on political systems, policies should focus on developing the quality of governance and help build institutions that will be building blocks of rule of law and democracy in the long term. The authors also argue that Western leaders have largely failed to grasp the significance of this region, relegated it to a subordinate status and thus damaging western interests. The development of sovereign, economically strong, and effectively self-governing states in the Caucasus and Central Asia is an important goal in its own right, the book stresses the importance of a region where the development and preservation of secular statehood could become a model for the entire Muslim world.
The granting of autonomous status to minority populations has gained support among academics and practitioners alike as a way to solve, manage, and even preempt ethnic conflict. In spite of the ...enthusiasm for ethnofederalism, however, the provision of autonomy to minorities may actually increase rather than decrease the likelihood of conflict. Under certain political conditions, autonomy promotes the separate identity of the minority and increases its motivation and capacity to seek separation from the central state. This article presents a rudimentary theoretical framework identifying which qualities of autonomy solutions increase the likelihood of conflict. It discusses how autonomy relates to other factors conducive to conflict by studying minorities in the South Caucasus and examines the case of Georgia. In Georgia, there were five ethnic minority populations, two of whom—the Abkhaz and the South Ossetians—enjoyed autonomous status and were the only minorities to engage in armed conflict with the Georgian government. This article shows how autonomy, by empowering ethnic elites with control of statelike institutions and by enhancing factors such as leadership, economic viability, and external support, played a crucial role in the escalation of the conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Conversely, the absence of autonomy mitigated separatist and secessionist sentiments among two of Georgia's other minority groups—Javakheti's Armenian and Kvemo Kartli's Azeri populations.
Introduces the geographical, historical and ethno-linguistic framework of the Caucasus, focusing on the Russian incorporation of the region, the root most conflicts; analyses individual conflicts, ...from their origins to the attempts at resolving them; analyses the role of the three regional powers (Turkey, Iran and Russia); and sets out a synthesis of the Caucasian conflicts and a conclusion on the place of the Caucasus in world affairs.
'A fine and important book, and usually accompanied by a helpful bibliography and collection of maps.' - Central Asian Survey 'A useful source for Western readers' knowledge about the Caucasus and its present political problems.' - Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
The link between armed conflict and the production and trafficking of illicit drugs has been frequently noted in the popular literature. Recent academic research on the matter has taken place mainly ...within the framework of studies of the role of natural resources in civil wars. These have tended to lump drugs together with other 'lootable' resources such as diamonds. The results have been mixed, with the main contribution so far being to show that drugs are not linked to the onset of conflict but appear to be linked to the duration of conflict. Yet, the specific dynamics and, in particular, the causal mechanisms of the linkage between narcotics and conflict remain poorly understood. Nevertheless, recent literature on terrorism and its link with organized crime provides important insights that are applicable to the relationship between narcotics and conflict. This review essay combines the economics and conflict literature with the crime-terror nexus, which provides useful insights as to the causal mechanism linking narcotics and conflict. Empirical cases indicate that where a pre-existing drug production exists, the conditions of armed conflict boost narcotics production and enable insurgents to become involved in the drug trade to finance their struggle, thereby increasing their capabilities and the challenge they pose to states. In some cases, involvement in the drug trade also seems to affect the motivational structures of insurgent groups, creating an economic function of war and vested interests in the continuation of armed conflict.
In the post-Soviet space as well as the Middle East, Western leaders have largely failed to heed ample evidence that the goals of the Russian leadership are fundamentally opposed to those of the EU ...and the US. Whereas Moscow seeks to counter Western influence and roll back the US's role in the world, the West has proposed a win–win approach, seeking to convince Moscow that its ‘true’ interests should lead it to cooperate with the West. When this has not worked, Western leaders have ‘compartmentalised’, isolating areas of agreement from areas of disagreement. This approach has come to the end of the road because the assumptions that undergird it are false. So long as Western powers fail to understand the fundamental incompatibility of their interests with the deeply anti-Western interests of the current power brokers in the Kremlin, they are unlikely to develop policies that achieve success.
The link between armed conflict and the production and trafficking of illicit drugs has been much noted in the popular literature, and recent research tentatively indicates a link between lootable ...resources, including narcotics, and conflict duration. Yet the specific dynamics of the linkage between narcotics and conflict remain poorly understood. Evolving theory on the link between organized crime and terrorism enhances and supplements the debate on economic incentives in civil war, proposing mechanisms whereby insurgent groups interact with narcotics production-a crime-rebellion nexus. Studies of nine major narcotics-producing areas indicates strong support for this nexus. Rather than generating or being generated by drug cultivation, armed conflict qualitatively and quantitatively transforms existing drug cultivation. Importantly, armed conflict is itself deeply affected by the narcotics industry, which tends to strengthen the capacity of insurgent movements while weakening that of the state. A momentous aspect of the crime-rebellion nexus is the effect that the drug industry tends to have on the motivational structures of insurgent groups: criminal involvement in some instances creates an economic function of war and vested interests in the continuation of armed conflict. This has substantial implications for strategies to resolve armed conflict involving the production and trafficking of illicit drugs.
European leaders were taken by surprise by the Ukraine crisis and Russia's response to the Eastern Partnership. They should not have been: all questions raised by the Ukraine crisis first emerged ...with the 2008 war in Georgia. European leaders appear not to have grasped the fundamentally different forms of integration that the EU and Russia have proposed–-and especially the fact that voluntary European integration in the Eastern Partnership effectively negates Russia's need for weak, authoritarian states to form part of its restored empire. In responding to the crisis, EU leaders face a challenge from Russia that is asymmetric: Russia uses direct threats to the sovereignty of the EU's eastern neighbours, especially through unresolved conflicts, matters the EU is ill-equipped to handle. Finding ways to remedy this gap will be an important task for the EU in the immediate future.
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