On December 16, 2019, the Center for Foreign Policy and Peace Research hosted a PeaceTalk: Young Scholar Series seminar at Bilkent University. Our guest speaker, Dr. Yelda Karadağ, Center for Black Sea and Central Asia (KORA), METU, made a presentation entitled, “Georgian Europeanization: An Ideational and Institutional Analysis”.

Dr. Karadağ provided an overview how the independence of Georgia from the Soviet Union in 1991 restored the idea of ‘return to Europe,’ marked by the Georgian political elites. Drawing on social constructivism, she discussed the ‘multiple’ aspects of the Georgian Europeanization, which goes beyond the institutional integration and domestic change in accordance with the EU acquis between Georgia and the EU. In order to analyze the Georgian Europeanization, she investigates both normative/ideational and practical/institutional elements of the Europeanization path, while tackling various representations/ articulations/references about how the ‘idea’ of Europe and Georgian Europeanness are re/constructed at different critical junctures in the Georgian post-Soviet independence process.