Category: Blog
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Tearing apart: what drives political polarisation in Georgia?
Lessons learnt from the 2018 Presidential elections By Tornike Zurabashvili Tornike Zurabashvili is an independent political analyst based in Tbilisi, Georgia. From December 2016 through June 2019, he edited Civil.ge, Georgia’s leading English-language daily news and analytical platform. He is currently a fellow at the Eurasia Democratic Security Network.
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Running out of steam: Georgian politics after the May 2019 elections
By Max Fras Local mayoral by-elections and parliamentary by-elections in May and June 2019, Georgia’s last electoral test before the 2020 parliamentary elections, signal a turbulent year ahead for Georgian politics and society. Although the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party won throughout, the elections revealed that both GD and opposition parties are struggling to present…
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EDSN 2019 Conference on Democracy and Security
June 3, 2019 09:00-17:00 Holiday Inn Tbilisi Join the Center for Social Sciences and the Eurasia Democratic Security Network (EDSN) for its 2019 conference on democracy and security in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Featuring a slate of distinguished speakers — including the 2018-19 cohort of EDSN fellows, prominent guest speakers, and invited experts — the…
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Armenia is a Russian ally and EEU member, so how did it pull off a democratic revolution?
By Dr. Karena Avedissian For Armenia, a Russian ally, a member of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), and once regarded as increasingly autocratic, the 2018 Velvet Revolution was a remarkable achievement.
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When corruption trumps geopolitics: lessons from the Moldovan election
By Mihai Popsoi In international circles, Moldova is frequently described as a country torn between Russia and the Euro-Atlantic West, where the push-pull of geopolitical competition is the defining feature of national policy and politics. Yet, while geopolitics may fill the headlines and fuel sombre discussions in Western capitals, the flawed recent elections in Moldova…
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Tbilisi’s protests and the Georgian Dream Political paradox
By Lincoln Mitchell The protests and political drama that have engulfed Tbilisi over last week or so has highlighted all of the flaws of Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party (GD). While the image of a pro-Kremlin Russian parliamentarian holding court in Georgia’s legislature was to many Georgians a troubling symbol, that event, and the political…
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What can Moldova Learn from Georgia?
By Mihai Popsoi After having visited Georgia several times since my first visit in 2016, I am in awe with the sheer splendor of the country’s booming new architectural landmarks. The controversial former president Mihail Saakashvili undeniably left a mark by embarking on a rapid modernization process that entailed drastic anti-corruption reforms as well as…
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Mobilizing Emojis: The HAHA Campaign to Counter the Recognition of Abkhazia
By Ann Tsurtsumia-Zurabashvili Being primarily an issue of foreign policy, the local dimension of the counter-recognition policy has remained rather overlooked. How ordinary Georgian citizens react to new external contacts of Abkhazia might be meaningless for the big picture, but it sheds light to the sentiments of societies living on both sides of the division…
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Armenia: Revolution in the EEU
By Dr. Karena Avedissian For Armenia, a country that is a member state of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and was widely perceived as slowly slipping into autocracy, the Velvet Revolution was a remarkable achievement. Despite Protest leader and current Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan’s framing of the protests as an internal issue – not…