Lincoln Mitchell: “Half Measures From NATO, And Georgia’s Search For The Other Half”

Time and time again Georgia has publically noted it aspired for European integration and NATO membership. But now, following the NATO September Summit in Wales where Georgia was not offered a MAP but a support package and recent UN General Assembly, Russia made a bizarre statement noting "pragmatic discussions” should be launched to ensure all countries in Eastern Europe region "enjoy equal and indivisible security and not have to make a false choice of either with us or against us”.

Russia’s strange statement could be better interpreted as another threat of possible consequences should Georgia and other countries move any closer to NATO, writes Lincoln Mitchell in his bi-monthly analysis of political and other major developments in Georgia.

Mitchell, who was the Chief of Party for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Georgia from 2002-2004, explored the contretemps around Georgia’s offer to host training camps for Syrian rebels fighting against the Islamic State, as well as Georgia’s role at the UN General Assembly and the efforts of country officials to meet numerous world leaders and foreign ministers.

Together, however, these two events underscore the need for Georgia to craft a foreign policy that continues to hew closely to the west, particularly the US, while also beginning to pursue a more multi-vectored approach that can help bolster their national security with regards to Russia,” writes Mitchell.

"For Georgian security, nothing would be as valuable as getting into NATO, but given how clear NATO has been on this issue, simply waiting for, and working towards, NATO is no longer a sufficient strategy for Georgia. Georgia therefore now has the very difficult task of remaining broadly speaking pro-west while at the same time pivoting away from dependency on the west for security assurances. Another way to look at this is that at the last NATO summit, Georgia got half measures and half guarantees. The challenge facing the leadership now is to find that other half.”

Read the full article here: www.lincolnmitchell.com