"The globe should interact," Kakachia said. "We need new concepts to apply not only to Georgia but to the entire South Caucasus, otherwise I don't see a future for this region."
Kenneth Yalowitz, director of the Dickey Center for International Understanding and the former U.S. ambassador to Georgia, introduced Kakachia and stressed the relevance of the war that broke out between Russia and Georgia in August 2008.
"It was a significant event because it was the first time since the break up of the Soviet Union that Russia used force to try to change boundaries between states, and [Kakachia] will offer a Georgian perspective on these series of events," Yalowitz said.
Georgia's move to become a member of NATO and the EU has brought tension to its relationship with Russia, with which it has deeply embedded ties, according to Kakachia, who is also an Open Society Institute Fellow and a research scholar at Columbia University.
"This is not only about the politics of the current situation, but also because [Russia] felt that Georgia is and should be a part of Russia," Kakachia said.
Kakachia said Russia needs to recognize that Georgia is "irreversibly oriented towards the West," and that the Georgian public does not support Russian ideology. A secured membership in NATO would not only aid Georgia, but would also force Russia to step down, thereby easing tensions in the area, he argued.
Georgia's membership in NATO will face many obstacles, Yalowitz said. Georgia has paid too much attention to relations with the United States but has not worked as well with its European allies, he said. Many European nations cannot ignore Russia due to its greater economic power compared to Georgia's, according to Yalowitz.
Other nations question whether Georgia is ready for a membership in NATO, according to Kakachia.
"At the end of the day, Georgia is a small country and European states do not have a direct interest," he said.
Kakachia said he believes Russia is interested in preventing Georgia from joining NATO because Russia would like to rebuild a Eurasian superpower by bringing post-Soviet states back into its "geopolitical orbit."
Beginning in 2008, Georgia began attacking villages of South Ossetia, a disputed region on the border of Georgia and Russia. The villages, along with Russian militia forces, retaliated by attacking, looting and raiding areas in Georgia, Kakachia said. While Georgia initiated the conflict, Kakachia said the Russian government had previously provoked the small, former Soviet country.
Not only has the war raised suspicion among other post-Soviet states, but it could also lead to balkanization of Russia, especially in the North Caucasus region, Kakachia said.
Quoting Russian president Dmitry Medvedev's five principles of foreign policy, which allow a "privileged" sphere of influence to protect Russian citizens even in foreign countries, Kakachia questioned whether the protection of Russia's expatriated citizens is a legitimate motive for starting conflict.
"Russian citizens can be anywhere and I think this kind of logic could be very dangerous," said Kakachia.
Kakachia also emphasized the importance of maintaining Georgia's sovereignty. If forceful changes in boundaries of one state were previously allowed, it would be very difficult to argue that it could not happen repeatedly, he said.
