Authors

  • Kornely Kakachia is Professor of Political Science at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia, and Director of Tbilisi based think tank Georgian Institute of Politics. His current research focuses on Georgian domestic and foreign policy, security issues of the wider Black Sea area and comparative party politics. He was a recipient of IREX and OSI fellowships and was a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Black Sea Security program, (2009–2010) Harriman Institute, Columbia University (2011) and The Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. In his capacity as an expert on Georgian Domestic and Foreign policy, Kakachia has appeared on BBC, Deutsche Welle, Financial Times, Le Monde, Figaro, VOA, as well as on Georgian radio and television stations to comment on Georgia’s foreign policy, regional security and other issues.

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  • Nino Samkharadze is a Junior Policy Analyst at GIP. At the same time, she is a PhD student at Tbilisi State University, Department of Political Science. She has obtained MA degree in Nationalism and Ethnicity Studies from TSU and BA degree in International Relations from International Black Sea University (IBSU). Being an invited lecturer at IBSU she delivers courses in Introduction to Political Science and Nationalism in International Relations. Nino’s research interests include nationalism, identity politics and their influence on political processes in the post-Soviet region.

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01/12/2022 Kornely Kakachia

People’s Power or Populist Pawns? Examining Georgia’s New Anti-Western Political Movement

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Authors

  • Kornely Kakachia is Professor of Political Science at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia, and Director of Tbilisi based think tank Georgian Institute of Politics. His current research focuses on Georgian domestic and foreign policy, security issues of the wider Black Sea area and comparative party politics. He was a recipient of IREX and OSI fellowships and was a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Black Sea Security program, (2009–2010) Harriman Institute, Columbia University (2011) and The Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. In his capacity as an expert on Georgian Domestic and Foreign policy, Kakachia has appeared on BBC, Deutsche Welle, Financial Times, Le Monde, Figaro, VOA, as well as on Georgian radio and television stations to comment on Georgia’s foreign policy, regional security and other issues.

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  • Nino Samkharadze is a Junior Policy Analyst at GIP. At the same time, she is a PhD student at Tbilisi State University, Department of Political Science. She has obtained MA degree in Nationalism and Ethnicity Studies from TSU and BA degree in International Relations from International Black Sea University (IBSU). Being an invited lecturer at IBSU she delivers courses in Introduction to Political Science and Nationalism in International Relations. Nino’s research interests include nationalism, identity politics and their influence on political processes in the post-Soviet region.

    View all posts

Publish Date:
2022-12-01 10:42:38
ტეგები:

The changing face of global geopolitics means that Georgia faces new challenges. Recent events, specifically the Georgian government’s critical messages aimed at Georgia’s Western partners have left some with the impression that the country’s pro-European orientation is in doubt. These doubts have been further reinforced by the emergence of a new political actor called People’s Power, which is affiliated with the ruling party and is made up predominantly of figures who were until recently members of the ruling Georgian Dream party or were pro-government journalists or experts. From the outset, this new party has adopted clearly populist and conspiratorial anti-Western messaging which casts doubt on Georgia’s established pro-Western foreign policy course.

Given the clearly benign stance of the ruling party towards People’s Power, there exists a suspicion that this new force is part of Georgian Dream’s electoral strategy to create a satellite party with whom future cooperation will be easy. Georgian Dream realizes that winning a fourth term of office in the 2024 elections will be difficult. As such, it has decided to mitigate this risk through the creation of a satellite party to attract its disaffected socially conservative supporters with anti-Western rhetoric. At the same time, it will seek to distract from its failure to attain Euro-Atlantic integration by pointing the finger of blame at the West. Against this background, it is important to analyse the aims of the new political force in both domestic and foreign policy and whether the appearance of such a force could cause damage to the democratic process.

Policy Memo #63 | December 2022

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Kornely Kakachia

Kornely Kakachia is Professor of Political Science at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia, and Director of Tbilisi based think tank Georgian Institute of Politics. His current research focuses on Georgian domestic and foreign policy, security issues of the wider Black Sea area and comparative party politics. He was a recipient of IREX and OSI fellowships and was a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Black Sea Security program, (2009–2010) Harriman Institute, Columbia University (2011) and The Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. In his capacity as an expert on Georgian Domestic and Foreign policy, Kakachia has appeared on BBC, Deutsche Welle, Financial Times, Le Monde, Figaro, VOA, as well as on Georgian radio and television stations to comment on Georgia’s foreign policy, regional security and other issues.