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POLITICAL ELITES, IDEAS and FOREIGN POLICY: Explaining and Understanding the International Behavior of Small States in the Former Soviet Union

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POLITICAL ELITES, IDEAS and FOREIGN POLICY: Explaining and Understanding the International Behavior of Small States in the Former Soviet Union GIORGI GVALIA BIDZINA LEBANIDZE ZURAB IASHVILI POLITICAL ELITES, IDEAS AND FOREIGN POLICY: Explaining and Understanding the International Behavior of Small States in the Former Soviet Union ILIA STATE UNIVERSITY 2011 GIORGI GVALIA, BIDZINA LEBANIDZE, ZURAB IASHVILI POLITICAL ELITES, IDEAS AND FOREIGN POLICY: Explaining and Understanding the International Behavior of Small States in the Former Soviet Union AN INITIATIVE OF GEBERT RÜF STIFTUNG IN COOPERATION WITH UNIVERSITY OF FRIBOURG About ASCN The Academic Swiss Caucasus Net (ASCN) is a programme aiming to pro- mote social sciences and humanities in the South Caucasus. Promising junior re- searchers are supported through research projects, capacity-building trainings and scholarships. The emphasis of the programme is on the promotion of individuals. In order to ensure sustainability, the ASCN programme puts emphasis on interna- tional networking and thus promotes cooperation between scholars based in the South Caucasus and scholars in Switzerland. The ASCN programme is run and coordinated by the Interfaculty Institute for Central and Eastern Europe (IICEE) of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). ASCN is initiated and supported by GEBERT RÜF STIFTUNG. ISBN 978-9941-18-089-7 ილიას სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტის გამომცემლობა ქაქუცა ჩოლოყაშვილის 3/5, თბილისი, 0162, საქართველო ILIA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS 3/5 Cholokashvili Ave, Tbilisi, 0162, Georgia CONTENTS ABOUT THE AUTHORS ............................................................ 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................... 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................... 9 PREFACE .................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER I ..................................................................................... 11 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 11 CHAPTER II .................................................................................... 15 A WORD ON METHODOLOGY ............................................. 15 CHAPTER III .................................................................................. 18 SMALL STATES AND FOREIGN POLICY: WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW ............................................... 18 CHAPTER IV ................................................................................... 27 IDEAS AND FOREIGN POLICY ............................................. 27 CHAPTER V .................................................................................... 35 THE IDEAS AND TRAJECTORY OF GEORGIA’S FOREIGN POLICY .................................................................... 35 CHAPTER VI ................................................................................... 51 FOREIGN POLICY IS WHAT STATES MAKE OF IT ............ 51 CHAPTER VII ................................................................................. 54 CONCLUSION ........................................................................... 54 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................... 60 5 ABOUT THE AUTHORS Giorgi Gvalia is an Assistant Professor of Political Sci- ence and International Relations at the International School for Caucasus Studies at Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia. His research interests are Theories of International Relations and Foreign Policy Decision-Making and Regional Security Cooperation in the Wider Black Sea Region. He teaches sev- eral courses, including Theories of International Relations and Foreign Policy Analysis. He is the author of the book, “Balance of Power or Balance of Threat?! Alignments in the South Caucasus.” Bidzina Lebanidze is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Berlin Graduate School for Transnational Studies. He holds a Mas- ter’s degree in international relations from the Tbilisi State University. His research interests include International and Transnational Relations, EU External Relations, Post-Soviet States, Russian Foreign Policy and the Southern Caucasus. Previously, he worked at the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation and lectured at Ilia State University. Zurab Iashvili is a Researcher at the College of Arts and Sciences and a lecturer in Politics at Ilia State University. He has earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Internation- al Relations from Ilia State University and studied European Integration and Development at Free University Brussels. His research interests are Elite-Mass Interaction and Democra- tization Processes in Post-Soviet Space, Political Theory and International Relations. 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to express our gratitude to all of the per- sons and institutions that, in any form, supported or con- tributed to the present research. In particular, we would like to thank the Academic Swiss Caucasus Net (ASCN). Their financial and ideational support gave us the opportunity to work on the research topic. The conference organized by ASCN in summer 2011, “Political Transformation and Social Change in the South Caucasus: The Case of Georgia,” gave us the invaluable opportunity to present our research results to a wider academic audience. The numerous methodological training sessions organized by ASCN contributed greatly to the methodological sophistication of the research. Specifical- ly, we would like to thank Denis Dafflon from the University of Fribourg for his technical guidance and academic advice, the local coordinator of ASCN, Professor Giga Zedania, from Ilia State University and Tiko Kadagishvili for their support. Furthermore, we would like to thank Arizona State University and its academic staff for their important contribution to the research process. In preparing the book, we owe a particular debt to Professor David Siroky from the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University. His intellectual contribution, critical reviews, insightful comments and aca- demic advice played a substantive and important role in the creation of the book. We are also grateful to Professor Rich- ard Ashley. His critical comments and academic advice gave us the opportunity to improve the final product. We would also like to thank Professor David Aphrasidze, Dean of the 8 School of Graduate Studies at Ilia State University; Professor Archil Abashidze from Ilia State University; Professor Tariel Sikharulidze from Ilia State University; and Esther Ademmer from Free University of Berlin. Furthermore, we would like to thank our interviewers, who were Ph.D. students at Ilia State University: Nino Gambashidze, Giorgi Murgvashvili and Vakthang Kekoshvili. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to all of the people who agreed to be interviewed. With all of this assistance, the responsibility for the weak- nesses of this work is solely ours. November 2011 Giorgi Gvalia Bidzina Lebanidze Zurab Iashvili 9 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EU European Union FPS Foreign Policy Strategy IPAP Individual Partnership Action Plan MAP Membership Action Plan NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NSC National Security Concept 11 PREFACE What explains change and continuity in the foreign policy behavior of small states? This question is important given the proliferation of small states over the past century, but it has been almost entirely overlooked in International Relations scholarship. In contrast, the International Relations litera- ture places a strong emphasis on the international behavior of great powers. Even when researchers analyze small states in the context of international relations, external/international factors, rather than state- or individual-level factors, are of- ten accorded primary explanatory power. The conventional wisdom on small states assumes that the international system is the most relevant level of analysis and that small states are more likely to bandwagon with the threatening great powers rather than balance against them. In the present study, we aim to demonstrate why this perspective on small states is impor- tant but insufficient and why ideas and identities could play a greater role in explaining the foreign policy behavior of small states than has been generally appreciated. After discussing the limitations of the conventional wisdom, we explore the roles of ideas and identities in foreign policy and present a general theoretical framework that incorporates them di- rectly. We test this claim through a chronological case study of Georgia’s foreign policy behavior, drawing upon original interviews and primary source materials. We find that Geor- gia’s foreign policy is quite poorly predicted by the conven- tional wisdom on small states, but is largely compatible with a framework that explicitly incorporates the influence of elite ideas. 12 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION What explains change and continuity in the foreign pol- icy behavior of small states? Given the proliferation of small states over the past few decades, this topic is increasingly relevant, but it has been overlooked almost entirely in Inter- national Relations scholarship. In contrast, the International Relations literature places a strong emphasis on the interna- tional behavior of great powers. Until recently, small states were only considered an appropriate research topic for the an- techambers of the discipline. Even when researchers analyze small states in the context of international relations, external/ international factors, rather than state- or individual-level factors, are often accorded primary explanatory power.1 The conventional wisdom assumes that
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