9789155492748 - Beacon of Liberty: Role Conceptions, Crises & Stability in Georgia's Foreign Policy 2004-2012 von Nilsson, Niklas (1 Ergebnisse)

Soft cover. Zustand: Very Good. 280 pp, bibliography. In 2004, Mikheil Saakashvili was elected president in Georgia, committing to a foreign policy that would ostensibly make his country a leading example of reform and democratization in the post-Soviet space, and net-contributor to Euro-Atlantic security. Throughout its time in power and until its defeat in Georgia's 2012 parliamentary elections, the Saakashbili government remained steadfast in its commitment to establishing these international roles for Georgia, despite developments in both the country's international and domestic contexts that could plausibly have made these roles and the foreign policy decisions deriving from them, redundant. This dissertation explored the relationship between national role conceptions (NRCs) and foreign policy stability. Georgia's NRCs as a Beacon of Liberty and Net-Security Contributor, evolving specifically in the relationship between the Georgian and U.S. governments during these years were subjected to serious challenges, particularly relating to two crises ensuing over the November 2007 riots in Tbilisi and the August 2008 war between Georgia and Russia. In both cases, the Georgian government faced conflicting imperatives emanating for its own role conceptions, the expectations voiced by its U.S. counterparts, and the immediate demands of crisis decision making. The dissertation applies recent advances in foreign policy role theory and crisis management theory in an analysis of the Georgian government's foreign policy vis-à-vis the U.S. in the years 2004-2012 and draws on unique first-hand material, including interviews with members of the Georgian and U.S. foreign policy elites and confidential diplomatic correspondence. The dissertation concludes that Georgia's foreign policy remained stable during these years because the two NRCs became deeply socially embedded in Georgia's relations with the U.S. over time, but also because the Georgian government proved capable of adapting its NRCs in response to crises, the role expectations of significant others, and contextual change.