The case of Georgia illuminates how pluralistic values and civic mobilization can serve as primary sources of resilience, even when formal institutional safeguards falter. Georgia’s experience shows that democratic culture can deepen even as autocratization advances.
Security concerns are reshaping the economic and foreign policy trajectories of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. As these nations navigate complex choices about their future paths, the EU should recognize the geostrategic importance of the South Caucasus and strengthen its ties with the region.
The South Caucasus's geography—the borders the region shares with Russia— has long overshadowed its politics. But with Moscow occupied with its war against Ukraine, countries in the region are developing alternative foreign policy priorities and recalibrating relations with the West. As Armenia moves closer to the United States and Europe, the government in Georgia is lurching towards Moscow – despite opposition from its society. Meanwhile, Armenia and Azerbaijan are in talks for a historic chance for a peace treaty which could serve as the bedrock of a new regional order.
What is the significance of the South Caucasus for the West? How likely is a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan? What can the U.S. do to encourage regional cooperation and reconciliation? And how should the U.S. support democratic aspirations of Georgian society?
Join the Carnegie Endowment’s Europe program to discuss the U.S. role for a new order in the South Caucasus with Ambassador Yuri Kim, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs;, Marie Yovanovitch, former Ambassador to Armenia and Ukraine and senior fellow in Carnegie’s Russia and Eurasia Program; and Dan Baer, director of the Europe Program at Carnegie and former U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Russia’s war on Ukraine is driving Georgia’s government toward closer alignment with Moscow and other illiberal states
Being pro-EU does not win politicians many votes in the Western Balkans and the Caucasus. There, Viktor Orbán’s version of an illiberal Europe appears to be the union’s top-rated political export.
Widely viewed as the most powerful person in Georgia, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili has announced a political comeback ahead of fall elections.
Rapid geopolitical change is curtailing Russian power in the South Caucasus, boosting the influence of Middle Eastern countries and bookending the region’s “post-Soviet” history.
