Between a Rock & a Hard Place
State sovereignty as such has become a very commonplace political value of our time. Practically all known nations of the world are free and independent countries, members of the United Nations Organization, but in the globalized and interdependent world, national sovereignty is only a nominal value: we depend on each other today as never before in history. For instance, in the not very remote past, if any of the neighboring countries wanted to invade Georgia and they had enough military power to pursue the goal, they would make a very independent political decision to assault Georgia and conquer it, devastating the country to the extent they found practicable and necessary, doing this exceptionally at their own discretion.
A thing like this is no longer as easy today as it used to be. Invading somebody else’s land has become a complicated undertaking thanks to current world order rules and regulations, but exclusions seem to be possible even in our civilized times. For example, almost one third of Georgian territory was recently invaded with the pretext and for reasons that are not the subject of this narration.
Yes, part of Georgia was literally invaded, and remains occupied by a stronger neighbor even now. Georgia is a sovereign nation, theoretically protected by international law in every possible respect, but its historical lands are occupied by another nation against the spirit and letter of that law and against its own people’s free and sovereign will. In trying to be free and independent, and in an attempt to maintain the long fought for independence, Georgia is trying to make the best premeditated geopolitical choices. It is not very clear what ‘the best’ might mean in this context, but Georgia is basing its choices on affordable reasoning and a sense of future security.
In the continuous series of desperate attempts to stay around and function, Georgia is suspended between a rock and a hard place, which literally means that it has found itself in a red-hot place between Russia and America, and, stuck between the two giants, does not exactly know what option to resort to. Russia is an old ally and a new enemy; America is an old soviet-time nemesis and a new friend. Meanwhile Russia and America are sworn adversaries with totally contradicting concepts of the world’s future, including the fate of Georgia.
Georgia is feeble both as a partner and as a rival, but it is also a geopolitically attractive and strategically interesting land with some pleasant ethnic features and indigenous customs to enjoy. It seems that both Russia and America are inclined to enjoy love and kinship with the little darling, but none of them have found ample time and enough readiness to define the little one’s spot under the sun, accommodating it between them so that nothing might threaten the attractive good guy called Sakartvelo.
The idealistic dreamers like me have thought and imagined that a certain fruitful triangular geopolitical model could have worked, if possible at all, to the benefit of the mentioned threesome, but there is always an awkward obstacle emerging between them. For instance, in the projected US military budget for 2017, cooperation between Russia and America is not considered reasonable, to put it mildly, and not only that! Allegedly, USD 4.3 billion will be allocated to restrain Russia. Could this be true? Most probably, yes. This is at least what I read in our most serious information sources. On the other hand, the self-same American military document has qualified Georgia as a worthy friend, and has once again confirmed America’s support for Georgia’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Question: How much do these two statements in the same American document of global importance help the said Russian-Georgian-American hypothetical triangle, within which friendship and cooperation could burgeon if tried? It sounds like the dream of a better life was shattered momentarily, even before it was divulged. Meanwhile, Georgia could indeed play a role, if given a chance, in building that dream triangle.
Nugzar B. Ruhadze