Georgia’s Dangerous Slide Away From Democracy

Kornely Kakachia, Bidzina Lebanidze Originally published by Carnegie Europe It’s a repetition Georgia could do without. This strategically important country in the Caucasus has been beset by yet another political crisis. This time, the catalyst was the government’s failure to follow through on...
Read More

Does EU have role in stopping backsliding in Georgia?

Kornely Kakachia, Bidzina Lebanidze  Originally posted by EUobserver The EU’s eastern neighbourhood is in flux. The collapse of the pro-reform government in Moldova and the stagnation of anti-corruption reforms in Ukraine was recently followed yet by another political crisis in Georgia. On 14...
Read More

Foreign policy and domestic constraints: what political regimes can and cannot do in Georgia

Kornely Kakachia, Bidzina Lebanidze Sparked by the presence of Russian Duma members in Georgia’s parliament, anti-governmental protests in Georgia have rattled the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party and caused a political crisis. The incident, including the disproportional amount of force used in cr...
Read More

Compendium of Policy Briefs 2019

Salome Minesashvili, Levan Kakhishvili,Bidzina Lebanidze, Nino Robakidze The four policy briefs in the publication introduce policy recommendations to tackle the trust crisis, polarization, and populism in Georgia. In particular, the publication focuses on the effect the decreasing level of trust in...
Read More

Rise of Nationalist Populism in Georgia: Implications for European Integration

Bidzina Lebanidze[1] This policy brief explores to what extent the rising wave of populist nationalism in Georgia affects the process of Georgia’s approximation to the EU. Normatively speaking, the populist nationalist discourse in Georgia is Eurosceptic as it legitimizes itself through opposition...
Read More

GIP Commentary: When an Election Damages Democracy: Lessons from the 2018 Georgia’s Presidential Election 

Kornely Kakachia, Bidzina Lebanidze Georgia’s recent presidential elections exposed many of the problems that have been aggravating the country’s democratization process over the last few years. By electing the country’s first female president, Georgia has made one step forward — but the...
Read More

Compendium of Policy Briefs 2018

Bidzina Lebanidze, Joseph Larsen, Levan Kakhishvili, Ivanna Machitidze Consisting of four policy briefs, the publication introduces policy recommendations on major aspects of Georgia’s Europeanization and democratization agenda,  particularly on the influence of Western political conditionality o...
Read More

Avoiding Gridlock: a Strategy for Georgia to Engage with Eurosceptic Europe

Bidzina Lebanidze Elene Panchulidze While EU’s door remains open to further accessions from Western Balkan countries, with current state, EU lacks the political will to give the same promise to EaP countries. For the Union the main dilemma is how to treat countries that are European but lack an im...
Read More

Life Without EU Membership: The Case for a Multi-Speed EaP

Bidzina Lebanidze The recent Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit in Brussels highlighted once again the gap between the expectations of the Eastern partners and the European Union. The advanced Eastern partner countries aspire for nothing less than full EU membership – something which the European Co...
Read More