Georgia – US relations in the context of the changing foreign policy of Georgia in 2022–2025

Abstract

The article analyzes the changing position of Georgia in the relations with the United States against the background of the crisis of strategic partnership. Based on the multi-factor analysis and forecasting, the research is aimed at understanding the logic of the Georgian leadership’s actions in the context of the present-day international political turbulence. The author considers the US – Georgian relations as an integral system with its own structural and functional links and identifies the two significant and independent variables in them – the stability of the current government in Georgia and the degree of its support by the American administration. Grounded on a combination of those variables, four scenarios for the development of the US – Georgian relations are proposed – the “restoration of the dialogue”, the “collapse of the dream”, the “relations of indifference” and the “authoritarian rollback”; short-term forecasts are also presented.
The scientific novelty of the article is determined by the two provisions. First, Georgia is viewed not as an object of the policy of the major powers, but as a subject with its own interests and the ability to independently choose the path of its political development. Second, due to the relevance of the recent events in Georgia (the constitutional crisis and the 2024 autumn protests), Russian political science has not yet attempted to analyze the suspension of the U.S.-Georgian strategic partnership in correlation with the internal political changes in Georgia itself.