Author

  • Levan Kakhishvili is a Policy Analyst at the Georgian Institute of Politics (GIP) and a doctoral fellow at the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences (BAGSS) in Germany. Since October 2018, Mr. Kakhishvili is a DAAD scholar pursuing his doctoral research on political party competition in post-Soviet hybrid regimes. His field of expertise includes democratization, political parties, Georgia’s foreign policy with a focus on Georgian-Russian relations, and issues related to national identity, ethnic minorities and nationalism. Mr. Kakhishvili has obtained two Master’s degrees: MSc in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Oxford, St Antony’s College and MSocSc in Transformation in South Caucasus from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. During 2015-2018, as an invited lecturer, he has taught various courses related to political science at the International Black Sea University, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, and Georgian Institute of Public Affairs.

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25/05/2021 Levan Kakhishvili

The European Union’s New Role in Georgia: Successful Mediation and a Way Ahead

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Author

  • Levan Kakhishvili is a Policy Analyst at the Georgian Institute of Politics (GIP) and a doctoral fellow at the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences (BAGSS) in Germany. Since October 2018, Mr. Kakhishvili is a DAAD scholar pursuing his doctoral research on political party competition in post-Soviet hybrid regimes. His field of expertise includes democratization, political parties, Georgia’s foreign policy with a focus on Georgian-Russian relations, and issues related to national identity, ethnic minorities and nationalism. Mr. Kakhishvili has obtained two Master’s degrees: MSc in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Oxford, St Antony’s College and MSocSc in Transformation in South Caucasus from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. During 2015-2018, as an invited lecturer, he has taught various courses related to political science at the International Black Sea University, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, and Georgian Institute of Public Affairs.

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Publish Date:
2021-05-25 10:03:43
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Consolidation of democracy is a lengthy and turbulent process, in which political crises can be a recurrent phenomenon. For Georgia, aiming to apply for the membership in the European Union (EU) by 2024, it is politically costly to let crises become unmanageable. However, the current political crisis, which started in June 2019, entered a deadlock in February 2021 when the leader of the largest opposition party, Nika Melia was arrested. At this point, the EU took up a role of a mediator and negotiated a deal between Georgian political parties. This defused the situation and a part of the opposition agreed to enter the parliament. While the political crisis is far from over the EU has found a way out of the deadlock. This policy paper explores the EU’s successful mediation. The paper first contextualizes the Georgian crisis to provide some insights into why solving it was important for the EU and then explores determinants of mediation effectiveness. The paper argues that three factors were the key: high capacity of using leverage, adopted mediation strategy, and high degree of coherence as a mediator. Based on the findings, a set of recommendations is provided for various domestic actors and the EU.

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Levan Kakhishvili

Levan Kakhishvili is a Policy Analyst at the Georgian Institute of Politics (GIP) and a doctoral fellow at the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences (BAGSS) in Germany. Since October 2018, Mr. Kakhishvili is a DAAD scholar pursuing his doctoral research on political party competition in post-Soviet hybrid regimes. His field of expertise includes democratization, political parties, Georgia’s foreign policy with a focus on Georgian-Russian relations, and issues related to national identity, ethnic minorities and nationalism. Mr. Kakhishvili has obtained two Master’s degrees: MSc in Russian and East European Studies from the University of Oxford, St Antony’s College and MSocSc in Transformation in South Caucasus from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. During 2015-2018, as an invited lecturer, he has taught various courses related to political science at the International Black Sea University, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, and Georgian Institute of Public Affairs.