Georgia's Identity-Driven Foreign Policy and the Struggle for Its European Destiny

Georgia, nestled between the Black Sea, Russia, and Turkey, and surrounded by the Caucasus Mountains, occu­pies a unique geographic space, which gives it strategic importance far beyond its size. Like other Eastern Euro­pean nations in the middle of transition, it is trying to construct a collective identity which can be projected toward the international arena. While Georgia's foreign policy is considered pro-western and multifaceted, it is not always based on principles of pragmatic expediency. For example, Georgia pays little attention to areas outside the Western world, including the region where it is located. This is largely because its gaze is entirely fixed upon the West. Since the dynamics responsible for this policy grow out of the social, economic, and cul­tural transformation which Georgia is currently living through, this article argues that Georgian foreign policy priorities are mostly identity driven. It also claims that the predominant idea of the Georgian elites - a group that sometimes acts on behalf of the state - is that Georgia rightly belongs in the West. This devotion to the idea of full-fledged Euro-Atlantic integration as a sacred destiny has significant foreign policy implications.