Georgia and America are celebrating twenty-five years of diplomatic relations and remarkable partnership. Georgia is an emerging democracy in a difficult region with mainly authoritarian regimes nearby. This and its location as a continental transport hub give it strategic importance. Georgia faces severe challenges from Russian military occupation and economic weakness, and to surmount them it deserves sustained Western support.
At its modern independence in 1991, Georgia was beset by civil wars, weak governance and poverty. Former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze returned from Moscow to lead the country. He could not avert Russian intervention in separatist conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but did neutralize warlords and foster a more open political system and a westward-leaning foreign policy. Over time, amid corruption and rigged elections, he lost reform steam. In 2003, in the peaceful Rose Revolution, the young, U.S.-educated Mikhail Saakashvili ousted him.
Saakashvili eliminated much corruption, sped reforms and strengthened state institutions. Under his presidency, Georgia improved in Transparency International's corruption perceptions index from 124th from the top (least corrupt) in 2003, to fifty-first place in 2012. In 2008, however, shortly after NATO denied a Membership Action Plan for Georgia but said it “will” become a member, Saakashvili succumbed to a Kremlin provocation and stumbled into a brief—but disastrous—war with Russia. Russia's military now occupies Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
In the last quarter-century, civil society and democracy in Georgia have taken firmer root. When Saakashvili's party in 2012 lost parliamentary elections, the Georgia Dream coalition took power peacefully. Bidzina Ivanishvili, a reclusive billionaire who funds it, plays a behind-the-scenes political role. His choice for president, the U.S.-educated Giorgi Margvelashvili, won election in 2013 and is a unifying and reformist voice. Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili is an able technocrat.
Russia's war has caused Georgia to accelerate its push to the West. Last year a major Association Agreement with the European Union entered into force. Georgia showed courage; in 2014, Russia intervened in Ukraine in a failed attempt to prevent its closer alignment with the West. Georgians now enjoy visa-free travel to the Schengen Area, a popular benefit. Striving to join NATO, Georgia is the largest per capita contributor to the alliance's contingent in Afghanistan.…
The remainder of this commentary is available at nationalinterest.org
Kenneth Yalowitz is the director of the Conflict Resolution Program at Georgetown University and a Global Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center, and was U.S. ambassador to Belarus and Georgia. William Courtney is an adjunct senior fellow at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation, and was U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan, Georgia, and a U.S.-Soviet Commission that implemented the Threshold Test Ban Treaty.
This commentary originally appeared on The National Interest on May 24, 2017. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
