Georgia has been trying for quite a while now to convince the world that living within a peaceful and potentially fruitful geopolitical configuration, which could verbally qualify as the Sakartvelo-West-Russia-East-Quadrangle, could well be the most optimal way for us to survive and successfully develop. But this thought-provoking polit-economical vision, plausibly and conditionally sounding like a dupe’s dream, has proven to be of little effect. In the current neo-realistic world order, with a looming multipolar international arrangement, dreams are only dreams, and facts are just facts.
Trying to put the current situation in clearly folkloristic terms, Georgia gives the impression of being in two minds, but this is not trivial geopolitical shillyshallying: Georgia is simply seeking to form its most optimal and successfully working niche in the family of nations, a niche which excludes chaos and war and includes only mutually beneficial cooperation and peaceful coexistence in the mentioned Quadrangle. Do we have any tangible reason to believe that this model of operation is not good for this nation? The truth of the matter is that the interests of the cherished Quadrangle’s nominally specified parties are so utterly disparate and often contradictory that it seems it would be almost impossible for Sakartvelo to meet all their mismatched endeavors and stay safe and sound at the same time: The good old West is perseveringly coaching Georgia in the complicated but rather agreeable subject of western liberal democracy, raising eyebrows at the Georgian people’s sporadic recalcitrancy towards that obligatory schooling in western ways and means; the historically angered and now universally beleaguered Russia is desperately trying to pull Georgia back into the soviet phony drama, within which the ostentatious love and brotherhood between the nations was sickeningly ineffectual, trying to achieve the goal by means of surreptitious usage of covert diplomacy, a wide spectrum of manipulative feints, strongly influential paraphernalia and other tested means of hybrid warfare; the less aggressive East is not asking for much, but keeps a sharp eye on the way Georgia behaves in the imaginative Quadrangle, so as to catch a favorable moment to make use of as-yet-unexploited economic and geostrategic assets of the nation that, historically speaking, was always tossed around either as a suitable partner or a condescending vassal; and finally, Sakartvelo, which is doing its best to maintain its long-recognized image of the owner of useful geopolitical terrain to facilitate the strategic and tactic operational aspirations of certain bigger players of the game, tripling down so as not to hurt anybody’s feelings in the ephemeral Quadrangle and beyond.
Another question is if Georgia can afford to be a party to the Quadrangle, maintaining the genuine status of a self-determining and self-governing nation. National liberty, based on the idea of unconventionality, purports a tendency for nonconformity with the desires and designs of other nations of the world, yet it also means remaining in firm, versatile collaboration with every single one of those nations, provided they are ready and willing to cooperate. Taking this definition of Georgia’s interaction with the rest of the world as a prerequisite for further international discourse, it would not be very difficult to conclude that Sakartvelo has to be ready in the near future to make its own decisions, but without even the vestige of an isolationist political stance, adequately and unwaveringly strengthening the notion of the Quadrangle, within which it might seek unseen-before political comfort and economic relief. On the other hand, the unfortunate geopolitical reality is leading to Sakartvelo never being allowed to partner up with West and Russia at the same time, and even with the East, depending on which part of the East is partnered with the West, and which one is friendly with Russia.
So, the peace-loving and industrious little nation of Georgia is deprived of the right to continue living in peace and cooperation with the rest of the world if it wants to use that most practicable and almost flawless Quadrangle as a conditional immediate framework for bringing to life that peaceful cooperation. We know we can’t have it all – a friendly hand from the West, benevolence from Russia and the prospect of thicker bread-and-butter from the East, but nobody has the right to disparage our dream. Says Sakartvelo: Give me my deserved spot in my beloved Quadrangle and let me do what I think is right for me, and I will never breathe a word of rebuke in anybody’s address. Truly golden words!
Op-Ed by Nugzar B. Ruhadze
