Thinking & Planning Strategically

Op-Ed

The world that we are part of is changing rapidly and developing dramatically, and the main trends of that dynamic need to be known well and have to be used to our own benefit. I know that prognostication and strategic planning that reflect key development trends in the fields of economy, ideology, politics, innovation, social sphere and security is what strong and well-organized nations are doing on a regular basis. I only dare to wonder if this country, too, is engaged actively in the same process; putting this a little differently, if we have a vision of Georgia in, say, thirty years from now- of its demographic numbers, gross domestic product, its competitive advantages and disadvantages, its place in the family of nations, its chances to survive in general, the new economic and political challenges and its potential to contribute to the well-being of our flimsy and trouble-ridden planet.

I have a couple of reasons to suspect that we have not completely mastered the challenges of our times that Georgia might experience in this disparate but still very tightly interconnected world. One of these reasons is our nonchalant reaction to the recent ominous forecast by the United Nations about the diminishing of Georgia’s population in the next half century and beyond. Those well-known influential international organizations work mostly as watchdogs and whistle blowers, letting us know in advance what might happen to us, and listening to them attentively might do a lot of good to those whose future need a better consideration.

Considering the future means thinking strategically and making the necessary forecasts and prognostications. Listen to this: if the UN forecast is true about our plummeting demography, then our priorities in every walk of life have to be different, simply different! Understandably, whatever the individual forecast for Georgia, a certain number of goals will always remain common for every nation, like propping up economies, strengthening financial markets, balancing the growth and sustaining the stability of domestic and international security.

Even in one of the most pessimistic of our moods, Georgia cannot give up on those goals; they are dictated by the nature of an ever-changing world economy and the incipient new global political order. Certainly, Georgia cannot be a key actor in this international system, but it still needs to play a modest role in the development of the demographic (demographic!), economic, financial and social trends, as well as in the achievements in science and technological change, ideological activities and cultural processes. And to do this, we have to be around as a minimum.

Therefore, thorough calculation of investment potential in our economic infrastructure, analysis of strategically significant long-term trends, precise determination of the ways of raising the standard of living, a rational vision for utilizing natural resources, mastering a sense of technological and scientific changes, sharpening the feelers for emerging markets, and certainly, procreation – this is all that needs to be considered and reconsidered until we handle them to our absolute advantage.

On top of everything, we are also faced with challenges in the global community, including terrorism, displacement, poverty, hunger and health threats, job creation, climate change, energy security, and the deepening inequality of many different characters. We have lived long enough to see the end of confrontation between capitalism and socialism, but have painfully bumped into the exacerbation of nationalism, the clash between various religious trends and moral values, and Georgia cannot stand apart from this. Georgia is and will have to be part of the battle, but only if we are still around. All that we’re talking about is happening in the globalized world, but political analysts are telling us that regionalization is also seen as an important trend of global evolution. This is exactly what gives our small country a big place in this rapidly changing world, where the combination of a sense of identity and an understanding of the country's global responsibility have to be kept in mind as a constant datum.

With this circumstantial indispensability, Georgia cannot but make a strategic forecasting of its economic, social and political existence. “The world has been undergoing a long period of international tension, economic and financial instability, uncertainty and redistribution of forces between traditional and new centers of gravity,” say experts of politics. We have to sit up and pay attention: Georgia cannot avoid those threats and risks because it has become an international player, and no matter how big or small, it has to learn well how to see clearly into its future, having equipped its eyes accordingly.

Nugzar B. Ruhadze