Europe outside of Europe: a critical geopolitics of the europeanisation of Georgia
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2019-09-05
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en
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This study addresses the apparent Europeanisation of Georgia, a small country in the South Caucasus on Europe’s very edges. Although the presence of an overwhelming number of symbols and representations of Europe in Georgia is a new phenomenon, discourses on the country’s supposed Europeanness have a long history. This study proceeds from the critical geopolitics framework by working with the assumption that geographical spaces do not have intrinsic meanings, but rather that these are constructed in meaning-giving ways. I study Russian and Georgian discourses on Georgia’s Europeanness beginning with the Russian Empire’s annexation of Georgia in 1801. A wide variety of sources is used to analyse these discourses, including but not limited to romantic literature, political speeches, and educational materials. The ongoing shift in Georgia’s identity towards a distinctively European one is also addressed in the context of an apparent geopolitical tug-of-war between the EU’s near abroad (Eastern Partnership Programme) and the Russian Federation’s alleged ‘sphere of influence.’ In addressing these questions, this study contributes to a wider research agenda on European identity and the construction thereof, by studying a particularly contentious case at the very edges of Europe.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen