Georgia (Country)

Georgia, the post-Soviet state between the Black and Caspian Seas, has been always one of the central actors in the geopolitical arena in the region through the decades, as well as experiencing a culture of informality and social cohesion in different spheres of life. Traditions of kinship network in the country, as well as clans and patronage relations of Georgian political networks, have existed for over a century. Georgia is still influential in the central Caucasus as a mediator due to its geopolitical position along with its economic and political relations with neighboring countries.

The integration of Georgian power elites into the Soviet political network in the early Soviet Union might illustrate the important role of the south Caucasus, in particular in Abkhazia, called the Soviet Riviera, which was a place where Communist Party leaders and central government officials built cottages and spent leisure time out of Moscow developing their personal networks and sharing informal activities. As claimed by some researchers, local ethnic networks of the Black Sea coast of Georgia also began to rapidly increase their presence in power positions in the 1920s under the “nationalities policy” in the Soviet Union, which enhanced the development of ethnically based hierarchies in the form of patronage networks loyal to one leader who was in close relations with the central Communist Party apparatus. Current ties between Russian and Abkhazian power elites based on common political, economic, and security interests may still play an important role in this territory.

After two decades of regime change, informal connections are important for Georgian economy, which is partly formed by private firms established by state officials on privileged conditions. These new businesses replace former state services, then monopolize markets and earning profits to their owners—state officials. Thus, the private sector of the economy and certain branches of state services form networks through interlocking persons who aim to gain profits. One of the purposes of starting a business is explained by Georgian traditional values of being trustworthy, gaining honor and thus gaining a sense of pride. These qualities are gained not only by the individual but by the extended family network. The goal of obtaining honor is the main objective for males, while the size of one's personal network is important for a successful career because informal networks are based on reciprocity and obligations, and the idea that mutual help will be given when there is trouble is assumed. These network features were among preconditions of shaping Georgian informal economy mechanisms during the last decades.

A young woman paints her face for a democracy protest in January 2007 during the Kmara (“enough”) social movement.

From the current geopolitical perspectives, Georgia still plays a key role in the central Caucasus due to its function as a liaison between other countries of the region. Georgia possesses an important position, along with Azerbaijan, in the transportation network as a corridor for oil transit from the Caspian basin through the Euro-Asian transportation and communication corridor (EATCC) linking Europe and Asia. The Azerbaijan–Georgia route for transporting oil became the project of the highest priority in Georgia in order to attract more foreign investments in addition to support from the United States. This pipeline project linked Azerbaijan and Georgia in economic partnership during the post-Soviet period, and Turkey was involved in the project implementation. In addition to pipelines, the railway system connects these countries, uniting the transportation systems of the Caspian, Black, Adriatic, and Mediterranean seas. The Russian energy company Gazprom aimed to include Georgian pipelines in the transportation network in the 1990s, but this attempt failed. Taking into consideration these conflicts between the actors in the international network for energy resource transportation, and especially between the interests and objectives of political elites, it can be concluded that one [Page 320]subgroup of Georgia and Azerbaijan, together with Turkey, tends to develop projects in the region, while the other subgroup of Armenia prefers to cooperate with Russia and Iran in opposition to these projects.

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