Summer University – Geopolitics in Wider Black Sea Area

The capital of Georgia hosted Black Sea Summer School from July 20^th to 26^th, 2015. “Geopolitics in the Wider Black Sea Area” was the main topic of the academic program, around which various important subjects were discussed, such as: EU integration, Energy security and regional security, the Eastern partnership, conflicts in the region, regional cooperation, etc. The project was organized by the “Centre international de formation européenne” in collaboration with two local partners, “Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (GFSIS) and “Georgian Institute of Politics (GIP)”. Therefore, all the lectures were conducted by international experts from European Union and from Georgia.

The participants represented 6 different nationalities, including Georgian candidates. Summer school program was aimed at PhD and MA students, but as Renata Skardziute-Kereselidze, one of the lecturers and representatives of “Georgian Institute of politics” mentioned, the main factor was their motivation: “even younger students, motivated and interested in the topic, were welcome to participate”.

Students were very involved during classes, doing presentation, working in groups, brainstorming. All the activities were aimed for their better understanding of the topics and sharing ideas. Participants also had a chance to go sightseeing in and outside of Tbilisi together. All the candidates completed the program successfully and received a certificate of participation.

“Often, when a country is in conflict, residents don’t think about the conflicts outside of their borders, therefore, a lot of them don’t even know, that our neighboring countries may share same problems as we do. For me, as an international relations student, understanding and discussing these subjects is very important.” Gvantsa Gverdtsiteli, one of the Georgian students, talked about the importance of this project for her and for other participants.