The Republic of Georgia: 3 Problems and 2 Opportunities

A Brief Introduction to the Republic of Georgia

Most people do not know where the Republic of Georgia is located, and many do not even know it is an independent country. That is understandable. It is a small country located in the South Caucasus Region, a remote and isolated part of the world. Most Georgians consider Georgia to be a European country, but it is on the boundary of Asia and Europe. Geographically it could just as easily be called an Asian country as a European country. The history of Georgia further confuses the issue of Georgian identity. For the last thousand years Georgia has been under the influence if not total control of one of three foreign powers: Iran, Turkey, or Russia, and its primary contact to Europe and the West has been through Russia.

For the past 200 years Georgia has been in turn a protectorate of the Russian Empire, a fully integrated part of the Russian Empire, briefly an independent state after World War I, a fully integrated part of the Soviet Union, after the fall of the Soviet Union a failed ex-Soviet state, and now a fully independent nation. Before that it was a target of competing interests between the Arabs, the Iranians, and the Ottoman Turks all seeking to subjugate the region.