CONFERENCE 100 years of Modern Georgia: An Interrupted History - June 18, 2018 17.00-19.30 Palais d'Egmont Brussels

CONFERENCE

100 years of Modern Georgia: An Interrupted History
                  June 18, 2018
                   17.00-19.30

                  Palais d’Egmont
                      Brussels

«Si quelques années avant la guerre, des militants informés des choses internationales,
pénétrés des idées fondamentales du marxisme, s’étaient posé la question de savoir quelle
serait la première capitale où s’établirait un gouvernement démocrate socialiste, quelques-
uns eussent songé à Paris…, d’autres plus nombreux eussent parlé de Berlin ou de Londres,
de Stockholm ou de Bruxelles ; mais je gage que pas un n’eût songé à Tiflis, Capitale de la
République Géorgienne.»

Emile Vandervelde, Ministre des Affaires Etrangères de la Belgique 1925-1927
Juillet 1921

«Refuser de libérer la Géorgie comme on a libéré la Pologne, la Finlande, les populations du
littoral Baltique, comme on sera conduit demain par la force des choses à libérer d’autres
régions encore, c’est bien pis que commettre un illogisme flagrant...»

«Ses habitants (de Géorgie) connurent un malheur auquel nous autres Belges pouvons
d’autant mieux compatir que nous l’avons nous-mêmes maintes fois éprouvé : le malheur
d’être en trop bonne place, à celle où chacun vous bouscule pour la prendre.»

«En tout organisant contre une attaque éventuelle la plus énergique résistance, ils ont
toujours soigneusement évité jusqu’à l’apparence d’une agression. Ils ne comptaient pour
vaincre leurs adversaires que sur la force de l’idée et sur celle de l’exemple. Ils voulaient
que leur petite république manifeste une telle supériorité sur la grande tyrannie que chacun
en ait sa conviction faite et sa résolution arrêtée.»

 Louis de Brouckère, sénateur belge 1925-1932
Juillet 1921

La Géorgie est le seul Etat socialiste du monde entier. C’est un Etat socialiste qui n’a pas été
fondé sur la terreur, la contrainte ou le meurtre, mais sur la démocratie.

Camille Huysmans, Premier Ministre belge 1946-1947, Président de la Chambre 1954-1958
Octobre 1921

Programme

17:00-17:15     Opening Remarks
                H. E. Aniek Van Calster, Director General, Belgian MFA
                H. E. Natalie Sabanadze, Ambassador of Georgia

17:15-18:45     Panel Discussion: First Republic and Its Successors

Moderator: Marc Franco, Senior Associate Fellow, Egmont Institute

Speakers:

Mr. Stephen Jones (1st republic, Socialism in Georgian colours)
Mr. Tornike Gordadze (Soviet and post-Soviet Georgia)
Ms. Amanda Paul (European Georgia: myth and reality)

Q&A

18:45-19:30 Reception

                                           Speakers Bios:

Marc Franco is a senior associate fellow at the Royal Institute of for
International Relations (Egmont Institute) in Brussels. He was Adviser for EBRD
in Egypt (2012) and previously Ambassador, Head of the European Union
Delegation to Egypt (2009-2012) and Head of the European Commission’s
Delegation to Russia (2004-2009). In his career at the European Commission,
he held various positions including Deputy Director-General of the DG
EuropeAid (2001-2004). In the period 1990-1998 he was Head of Unit in the
Department dealing with Enlargement. He started his career in the University
of Leuven (1969-1971), continued as Associate Expert of the UN in Upper Volta and Senegal (1971-
1975), as PhD researcher at the University of Cambridge (1975-1978) and as official of the European
Commission (1978-1989).

Professor Stephen Jones received his Ph.D from the London School of
Economics and Political Science in 1984. He has taught at the
universities of California, London, and Oxford. He was a Research
Fellow at Harvard University and a Senior Associate Member at St
Anthony’s College, Oxford. Since 1989 he has taught at Mount Holyoke
College in the USA. Professor Jones has written over 100 articles and chapters on Georgian and
Caucasian affairs. His books include Socialism in Georgian Colors: The European Road to Social
Democracy, 1883-1917 (Harvard University, 2005), War and Revolution in the Caucasus: Georgia
Ablaze, (ed., Routledge, 2010), Georgia: A Political History Since Independence (I.B. Tauris, 20012),
and The Birth of Modern Georgia: The First Georgian Republic and Its Successors, 1918-2010, (ed.,
Routledge, 2013). He is currently working on a book about the Georgian Democratic Republic (1918-
21).

Amanda Paul is a foreign and security policy analyst at the European Policy
Centre. Her main areas of expertise include Turkish foreign, security and
domestic policy; security and conflict resolution in the Black Sea/Eurasia
region, Russian foreign policy in the former Soviet space and EU foreign
policy in its Eastern neighbourhood. As a Senior Policy Analyst at the EPC she
is responsible for managing EPC projects related to Turkey; the EUs Eastern
Neighbourhood and Caspian region; the Middle East and Gulf region and
Jihadist radicalisation. She is also Associate Senior Research Fellow at the
International Centre for Policy Studies in Kyiv, Ukraine, where she contributes to research and
projects related to Ukraine and the broader region.

Natalie Sabanadze became Georgia's ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg
and the head of the Georgian mission to the European Union in May,
2013. Prior to assuming her current position, Sabanadze worked as the
senior adviser to the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities in
The Hague. She held a number of posts with the OSCE HCNM, including
head of Central and South East Europe section and more recently, head of
Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia section. Natalie Sabanadze
studied at Swarthmore and Mount Holyoke Colleges in the United States,
before obtaining her Master's in International Relations with distinction at the London School of
Economics in 1999. In 2005, she completed her doctorate in Politics and International Relations at
Oxford University, where she was a Dulverton Scholar. Sabanadze has written and lectured
extensively on questions of post-communist transition, political theory, nationalism, ethnic conflict
and national minorities.

Thornike Gordadze is senior advisor for research and education at the French Institute of Higher
National Defence Studies (Paris) and associate professor at Paris Institute of Political Studies
(Sciences-Po). He studied political science and international relations at Sciences Po Paris and Yale
University (PhD obtained in 2005). From 2006 to 2010 he was the head of the French research
institute on Caucasus in Baku . From July 2010 to November 2012 Thornike Gordadze was Deputy
minister of Foreign Affairs and later State Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of
Georgia. He was Georgia’s chief negotiator on Association Agreement and DCFTA talks with the
European Union.