The Georgia's European perspective and the bilateral relations of Georgia with its main partners and neighbors are all in the focus of this comprehensive interview. We also talk about the role of think-tanks in the formation of the country's international agenda.
Alexander KAFFKA, editor-in-chief of CJ: Dear Ekaterine, welcome to Caucasian Journal. Thank you for attention to our readers. Many of them are professionals in international relations, and would be especially interested in this interview. There are quite many foreign policy questions on today’s agenda, but let me start by asking to briefly introduce your Foundation, and how did you get involved in it?
Ekaterine METREVELI: Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies is a Tbilisi-based foreign policy think tank, established back in 2001. We aim to improve decision-making practices, contribute to better national security policies, promote European and Euro-Atlantic integration and enhance regional cooperation. I joined the Foundation in 2002, after returning from the US, where I was a Muskie fellow at the University of Pittsburgh. I met Dr. Alexander Rondeli and Temur Yakobashvili, co-founders of the GFSIS, accidentally at one of the receptions and they have invited me to visit their office at Niko Nikoladze 7. I went on the second day and stayed for now already 20 years. Our office at that time was a small, three-room apartment where we’ve started one of GFSIS flagship programs in National Security in cooperation with the Rand Corporation supported by the US State Department. It was a very warm, friendly, family type atmosphere, which we hope to have maintained until today, with a steady growth of the foundation. What we are really proud of is that GFSIS houses people with different political views and this does not prevent us to coexist and contribute to the common goal that is Georgian state anchored in European and Euro-Atlantic space.
