Georgia’s Foreign Policy from A Geopolitical Perspective (2008-2018); based on the Grand Chess Board Doctrine by Brzezinski

The Russo-Georgia war in 2008 interrupted Georgia’s membership in NATO and the EU. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Georgia was a proper destination for the western countries due to its geopolitical superiority, located between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. Georgia’s goal also was to obtain the conditions of the EU and NATO to achieve the membership of these two organizations as an Eastern European State. With the occurrence of war in 2008, Georgia’s Geopolitical situation changed. The research hypothesis is, by losing 20% of Georgia’s territory in that war, one of the main conditions for joining NATO and the EU which is the territorial integrity, was suspended. This research is based on the Grand Chessboard Doctrine by Brzezinski, marking the geopolitical factors of Georgia and the great powers’ interests in this territory. The main question of the article is “What are the main features of Georgia's Foreign Policy from the Geopolitical perspective from 2008 to 2018?” the hypothesis is, “Geopolitically, Georgia’s neighborhood with Russia and the August war in 2008 resulted the occupation of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Russia, delayed the Georgia’s membership to EU and NATO and Georgia tilted toward the West since it needed to counterbalance its foreign policy with strong powers against Russia.” Therefore, despite the fact Russia tried to show the war was just an ethnic conflict, it was further than that, and Russia’s southern border security with a logical distance from NATO was the main reason for war.