The Democratic Security Institute (DSI) is an independent, non-partisan thinktank based in Tbilisi, Georgia. We are a team of policy and civil society professionals who are passionate about the power of democracy to bring security, social justice and prosperity to people living in the countries of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.
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  • POLICY BRIEFING: Democracy Promotion in Eurasia — A Dialogue
    POLICY BRIEFING: Democracy Promotion in Eurasia — A Dialogue

    By Licinia Simão Democracy promotion in the countries of the former Soviet Union is now a well-established policy in many Western institutions. For more than two decades, the European Union (EU), the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and even the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have developed specific… Read More

  • Azerbaijan’s New Law on Status of Armed Forces: Changes and Implications
    Azerbaijan’s New Law on Status of Armed Forces: Changes and Implications

    By Zaur Shiriyev A draft law on the “Status of the Armed Forces” was introduced by the Parliamentary Committee on Defense, Security and Anti-Corruption in mid-November, and on 1 December it was heard by Parliament. The amendments were adopted upon a second hearing with a majority vote on 15 December. The issue was first on the agenda back in… Read More

  • The Elections and Kyrgyz-Kazakh Complications

    By Shairbek Juraev Can an exercise of democratic elections jeopardize a nation’s foreign relations? Not necessarily, but when combined with the non-democratic exercise of foreign policy, it probably can. The 2017 presidential elections in Kyrgyzstan, much praised as a rare case of peaceful power transfer from one elected leader to another in Central Asia, has also gained… Read More

  • What Dreams May Come for Those that Dream of Europe

    By Yaroslava Babych If four years ago, someone suggested that a relatively small student protest camp in Ukraine, violently dispersed overnight by police , would have a profound influence on European history, many would simply laugh at the thought. For many years, EU policymakers have been walking a tightrope between integrating neighboring countries into its… Read More

  • The Ballad of Misha and Petro
    The Ballad of Misha and Petro

    By Lincoln Mitchell The latest verse in the ballad of Misha and Petro may be the strangest one yet. The former Georgian President, Misha Saakashvili, and current Ukrainian President, Petro Poroschenko, were friends from their student days. When Poroschenko was first elected President of Ukraine in 2014, it was seen as logical that he appointed… Read More

  • EVENT: Youth Perspectives on Democracy Promotion in Eurasia
    EVENT: Youth Perspectives on Democracy Promotion in Eurasia

    Licinia Simão, an Assistant Professor at the University of Coimbra in Portugal and an EDSN Fellow, is hosting an interesting event at the University of Coimbra in the framework of the the EDSN project. The event, Youth Perspectives on Democracy Promotion in Eurasia, will feature a moderated dialogue among and between international relations students at Coimbra with the… Read More

  • POLICY BRIEFING: Does Democracy Still Matter in Georgia?
    POLICY BRIEFING: Does Democracy Still Matter in Georgia?

    By Lincoln Mitchell More than a quarter of century after once again achieving independence, fourteen years after the Rose Revolution, and five years after the democratic breakthrough that defeated the United National Movement (UNM), the state of democracy in Georgia is still mixed. The recent local elections were generally reviewed with the same mixture of… Read More

  • The Challenge of Moving EU-Georgia Relations Forward

    By Licinia Simao The Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit on 24 November in Brussels, represents another important milestone in Georgia’s path of European integration. After having signed an Association Agreement with the European Union that entered into force in July 2016, and having been granted visa free status, Georgia is now looking forward to seeing its position… Read More

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