Jen Weedon

Internship - Caucasus Research Resource Center, Eurasia Foundation, Tbilisi, Georgia

Thus far I have I conducted some general research on Georgia's aspirations to join NATO and public opinion regarding it; most average Georgians I've spoken with and public opinion polls that my organization has done indicate that people think joining NATO will be a panacea in solving the territorial conflicts, guaranteeing general security, and reducing Russian influence in the region. It is obvious that NATO accession is hugely important- there are actually advertisements in Tbilisi that say Georgia's "top foreign policy priority" is to joint NATO. There are military bases being built right on the side of the highway (not sure how safe that is). Georgia is also using other organizations, recently the Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), which is not strictly political or security related, as a platform to talk about Georgia's separatist regions. I'm not sure if this is credible information or not but there were reports that five protestors linked to Al-Qaeda – including a Chechen- were arrested at the BSEC summit in Istanbul to protest the BSEC leaders.

GUAM is trying to change its mandate to a more holistic one, from a purely security orientated organization to one of democratic development, economic cooperation, and perhaps the creation of peacekeeping forces to place in the conflict regions on the South Caucasus. This however has proven problematic because some GUAM members are reluctant to establish a joint peacekeeping force. At a recent GUAM summit in Baku the Georgian President Saakashvili talked about how cooperation among GUAM members was imperative in dealing w/ separatist regions in the Caucasus.

Biography

Jen Weedon is a second year student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy focusing on security studies, human security and international law with a regional focus on Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. She graduated cum laude from Smith College in 2002 with a degree in Government and received a Fulbright fellowship to conduct research in Ukraine on attempts to combat trafficking in women in the Former Soviet Union. At Fletcher she has studied international law on the use of force, international human rights and humanitarian law, and the history and political developments of the Caucasus and Central Asia.