“Georgia depends in large part on a healthy international economy. Two geopolitical conflicts: one in Ukraine, the other involving Iran in the Gulf, have enormous consequences for development in a country like Georgia,” an American political scientist and international relations scholar, John Mearsheimer, stated.

He stated that great powers have a significant influence on small countries like Georgia, emphasising that small states must therefore pay closer attention to the politics of great powers.

The American political scientist explained that Georgia is affected by two major ongoing conflicts worldwide due to its strategic geographical location.

“In the world we live in today, economic considerations and security considerations are intertwined in ways that they simply were not during the unipolar moment. It is very important to understand that. If you are interested in sustainable development in a country like Georgia, you must pay attention to geopolitics, defined largely in terms of how the great powers interact with each other. Those great powers, which are essentially the gorillas in the system, have a huge influence on much smaller countries like Georgia. For that reason, countries like Georgia must pay close attention to great power politics and consider how those politics affect all sorts of different aspects of life within Georgia, including economic development.

What is very disturbing about the world of geopolitics today is that two major conflicts are taking place that have a significant effect on Georgia, simply because of Georgia’s geographical location in the international system. Georgia depends in large part on a healthy international economy. These two geopolitical conflicts- one in Ukraine, the other involving Iran in the Gulf- have enormous consequences for development in a country like Georgia.

Economic development is absolutely essential for Georgia. It is very important that you grow your economy as rapidly and impressively as possible, and you do not want geopolitics to stand in the way. But you know very well that geopolitics presents real and potential problems down the road. It is therefore vital that you think carefully about the relationship between geopolitics and sustainable development,” John Mearsheimer told the GPB First Channel.