Panel One: Energy and Economic Development

"As service is restored, as the energy sector continues, as I hope that it will, to get on a more and more sound economic footing, there’s a huge potential that the energy sector, both in relation to electricity and in relation to the oil and gas and refined products, will provide a stronger and stronger economic base, with which Georgia’s broad economy will move forward." 

-Jonathan Elkind,EastLink Consulting, LLC and The Brookings Institution

"After the incorporation of Georgia and the entire South Caucasus and later the North Caucasus into the Russian Empire...Georgian political thought, was dominated by the idea and by the search to regain...the lost function of being the protector and the corridor between the East and the West."

-Vasili Rikhadze, Visiting Scholar, The Harriman Institute

"Real reform, which we Westerners have pushed so relentlessly, always generates political controversy.  And the current opposition in Georgia has lacked coherence and credibility.  That said, I deeply regret the events of November 7^th, and believe the government’s overreaction did lasting harm to Georgia’s international reputation.  As part of the Georgian Diaspora, and as someone who has seen firsthand the enormous commitment that has been made to reform on the part of Georgians as well as the international community, it is deeply frustrating for me to watch as the events of November 7^th and the subsequent controversy threatened to overshadow and undermine all the good things that have been happening in Georgia."

-Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff, Consultant, Business Climate Reform in Georgia

For the full transcript of this panel, click here.

Keynote Address by Ambassador Richard Miles

"It’s going to be a considerable test I think for the strength of Georgia’s relatively young democratic institutions, and its relatively young leaders, both in the government and out of the government.  In fact I would say that Georgian democracy is going to be somewhat tested between now and January 5^th.  I’m personally optimistic about this process, and I’m glad to see that some of the panelists expressed some of that optimism.  I think we can be realistic about Georgia and appreciate Georgia warts and all, and still retain an affection for it, with not just a hope that things will turn out well but an anticipation of it.  I put myself in that category."

-Ambassador Richard Miles 

For the full transcript of Ambassador Miles' keynote speech, click here.

Panel Two: Georgia, Russia and Frozen Conflicts

"If President Saakashvilli will be elected, he will have more and more opportunity to start even more vigorous diplomatic, and aggressive diplomatic approach to this conflict resolution.  And I think there will be new options and new possibilities for us, for diplomats and those who are working in this field, to show ourselves, first of all, and to demonstrate to the international community that Georgia is fully committed to the peaceful talks, and fully understands the responsibility, the new responsibilities now that the situation gives up, and drops on Georgian shoulders, and I think I'm optimistic about the future talks with the Abkhaz side."

-Ambassador Irakli Alasania, Georgian Ambassador to the United Nations

"Both conflict situations, however, in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, are characterized by continuing tension, periodic outbreaks of limited hostilities, suspension of authorized meetings between the two sides, and a virtual absence of progress on confidence building measures.  And I am very, very happy that these very senior level Georgian and Abkhaz officials have resumed contacts as of October 25^th.  That is certainly a very promising note against a backdrop of less promising developments." 

 -Ambassador Ken Yalowitz, Director, John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, Dartmouth College

"The real challenge, it seems to me, is to move beyond this notion that the primary obstacles to real progress are external actors and, in the case of the Russians, or the hope is external actors, in this case the West, the EU, OSCE, and for the two sides to recognize that this is only going to make progress if the two of them engage one another, and the others are then facilitators, they're not principles.  And I don’t know how close either side is to doing that."

-Robert Legvold, Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Soviet Foreign Policy, Columbia University

For the full transcript of this discussion, click here.

"Georgia really has a mixed record over the last four years.  And if you look closely at our findings, you’ll see it’s a record both of some impressive achievements, certainly in the post-Soviet region and context, but it’s also an unfinished story.  And it’s a partial success." 

-Christopher Walker, Director of Studies, Freedom House

"For the Bush administration, which increasingly was relying on the Rose Revolution as its one major success, it could continue to point to as some of the other revolutions it was using to buttress the freedom agenda faltered.  Then what happened in Georgia really begins to raise questions and we began to see immediately in the aftermath of the events in November.  Once again, the old debates about, do you support personalities orr you support procedures?  Does process matter more than results?  Is it better to have parliamentary systems and moving away from hyper-presidential ones?"

-Nicholas Gvosdev, Editor, The National Interest

"I think those street movements of 2004 and 2007 resembled what Ken Jowitt has called, 'movements of rage'.  In other words, they were fundamentally driven, I believe, not by a desire for constitutional change, or even elections.  And I think this is where the current opposition with its esoteric demands for technical fixes don’t really get it.  But by a sense of desperation connected to unchanging or even worsening conditions of poverty, unemployment, and government indifference, and that really, in many ways, has not changed over the last four years.  Other things have changed."

-Stephen Jones, Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies, Mount Holyoke College

"I think in Georgia you could argue that parties do in fact structure politics quite well, that political leaders, even within the United National Movement, have invested in parties as vehicles for political competition.  I think, also, the recent events on November 7^th demonstrate that when the opposition parties get together, they can also prove to the ruling party that they make a difference, and that they matter."

-Alexander Sokolowski, Senior Political Process Advisor Bureau for Europe and Eurasia, USAID

"The Georgian government has argued that they have prioritized state-building, not democracy during these years.  I think this is an argument made of convenience.  A government as popular and confident as the Rose Revolution government in the early years would have strengthened itself by doing things more democratically.  That process gets a little better, they probably get better laws, and they get more buy-in from more parts of society.  I think, in fact, they weakened the  Georgian state by pushing things quickly, by cutting corners." 

-Lincoln A. Mitchell, Arnold A. Saltzman Assistant Professor in the Practice of International Politics, Columbia University

For a full transcript of this discussion, click here.

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