

Session 4
Thursday (May 5):
8.30-10.00 AM ET
CHAIR
Helge Blakkisrud
(Norwegian Institute of International Affairs)
PAPERS
Julie Wilhelmsen
(Norwegian Institute of International Affairs)
Identification and Physical Disconnect in Russian Foreign Policy:
Georgia as a Western Proxy Once Again?
Levan Kakhishvili
(U of Bamberg, Germany)
Measuring Incremental Changes in the Foreign Policy of Small States:
A Case Study of Georgia
Christofer Berglund
(Malmö U, Sweden)
Sons of the Soil or Servants of the Empire?
Profiling the Defenders of De Facto Statehood in Abkhazia and South Ossetia
*co-authored with Ketevan Bolkvadze (Lund U, Sweden)
Tornike Zurabashvili
(Tbilisi State U, Georgia)
Small Nation in a Big World:
Geopolitical Visions in President Mikheil Saakashvili’s Rhetoric
DISCUSSANT
Gerard Toal
(Virginia Tech, US)