“Bandwagoning by stealth? Explaining Georgia’s Appeasement Policy on Russia” by Prof. Kornely Kakachia (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University), July 9, 15:15.

Date and time: 9 July (Thursday), 15:15-16:45

Speaker: Kornely Kakachia (Professor, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Department of political science)

Place: Conference Room No. 1, 10th floor, Building No.3, Waseda Campus, Waseda University

Title: Bandwagoning by stealth? Explaining Georgia’s Appeasement Policy on Russia

Abstract:
Bandwagoning by stealth refers to a situation when a government of a small state tries to accommodate a great power turned to aggressor amid a strong public opposition. We explain it with the example of Georgia’s foreign policy towards Russia in the period of 2012–2022. It is argued that Georgia’s attempt for rapprochement to Russia since 2012 can be explained by two unit-level variables: (1) a belief of the country’s leadership in the need to accommodate Russia and (2) a societal and public opposition to the Russia-accommodating policy. A conflictual dynamic between the Russia-accommodating government and Russia-sceptic public resulted in bandwagoning by stealth – a defacto and partial bandwagoning with Russia without formally changing Georgia’s declared pro-Western foreign policy.

Bio:
Kornely Kakachia is a Professor of Political Science and Jean Monnet Chair at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia. He is also the Director of the Tbilisi-based think tank Georgian Institute of Politics. His research focuses on Georgian domestic and foreign policy, security issues in the wider Black Sea region, and comparative party politics. He has received IREX and Open Society Institute fellowships and has held visiting fellowships at Harvard University’s Black Sea Security Program (2009–2010), the Harriman Institute at Columbia University (2011), and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Prof. Kakachia is co-editor of Georgia’s Foreign Policy in the 21st Century: Challenges for a Small State (I.B. Tauris, 2021) and Security Dynamics in the Black Sea Region: Geopolitical Shifts and Regional Orders (Springer, 2024). His academic and policy research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including European Security, Democratization, Europe-Asia Studies, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, and Nationalities Papers.