My take on the turn of events in Georgia: a crisis we sowed by asking the impossible

Opinion piece on Responsible Statecraft

“One regional analyst characterized Georgia’s actions as “geopolitical backsliding.” That might have been a Freudian slip. Or it might have been in earnest, normalizing the conflation of geopolitics with democracy that defines the West’s approach to Europe’s periphery.

This approach — demanding ever-greater inroads into sovereign politics and governance, asking vulnerable countries the impossible, arm-twisting and worse — will not restore the constructive partnership we once had with Georgia and continue to fan the country’s crisis.”

Read the entire piece, published on 12/02/2024 on the Quincy Institute’s Responsible Statecraft magazine.