On March 13th, 2018, the SFS was honored to host His Excellency Dr. Giorgi Margvelashvili, President of Georgia, for a conversation on Georgia’s struggle secure its place among Western nation-states. The event, hosted by the BMW Center for German and European Studies and the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies, also was in celebration of the centennial year of the Georgian republic’s founding in 1918. Margvelashvili holds a doctorate in philosophy, has been active in Georgian politics since the early 2000s, and previously served as Vice Premier and the Minister of Education and Science. He was elected President of Georgia in 2013.
President Margvelashvili began by giving the audience a brief history of Georgia over the last 100 years, with particular emphasis on its political development over the last few decades.
“It’s an ex-Soviet Republic that has very clearly declared its pro-Western orientation and…has bee punished for this orientation.”
He then sat down with SFS Professors Jeffrey Anderson and Angela Stent to discuss Georgia’s contentious relationship with the Russian Federation since the fall of the Soviet Union.
“Russia has declared to itself and to the international community that they have privileged rights…on the nations that have lived long before…that have an independent identity,” Margvelashvili said. “What we should be doing is trying to be sincere with Russians…and tell them ‘we are not going to accept your view of the world,” he explained.
During the audience Q&A session, Margvelashvili expressed optimism for Georgia’s economic development.
We have found our niche in economical geopolitics: we are a transit country. Now we have to add to this niche.