Fletcher Alum speaks about his work reforming the Police and Intelligence Academies of the Republic of Georgia
Kakha Khizanishvili (MALD 2002), the current director of the Police Academy of the Republic of Georgia, returned to The Fletcher School to speak about his experiences reforming the Georgian police and intelligence services and about his country’s complex and troubled relationship with the Russian government.
After winning an Edmund S. Muskie fellowship in 2000, Khizanishvili came to Fletcher to focus on International Security studies with a specialization in Central Asia and the Caucasus. He then worked as a Security and Political Risk Analyst for British Petroleum after Fletcher.
Georgia’s current dynamic reforms come as a remarkable contrast with the difficult years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he said.
"Georgia had one of the toughest transitions after the fall of the Soviet Union – tensions with Russia, ethic conflict, civil war. Any kind of situation that could be called a crisis, we had it. The government was as corrupt any one could imagine, and nothing was going on in the country – it was a stalemate," he explained.
Then in 2003 a mass popular movement following a rigged election called the Rose Revolution toppled the old government. "It was uplifting to see people finally voice their discontent," Khizanishvili recalled, but "Then the hard work started, with very intensive reforms."
"The new government decided to close the old KGB style intelligence training school. I took the job because it was an extremely interesting project." While he was able to draw on his training and experience at Fletcher, "I was also assisted by sister agencies in friendly countries."
"The government then merged the center with the police academy and put me in charge of that too," he said. The government had already begun major reforms to improve the quality and professionalism of the police, and especially to combat corruption.
"One day they fired all the traffic police, who were notorious for doing no work and just asking for bribes. Then two months later new patrol police were hired with new uniforms who don’t take bribes, something that is unique in former Soviet Union. Now there is 65-70% approval of the patrol police, which is remarkable considering the very low position of the police in Georgian culture," he explained.
Now, however, "revolutionary reforms have been carried out in education, which had declined because of pervasive corruption," he said, describing how bribes used to determine university admissions. To combat this practice, "[the government] introduced national unified high school exams to govern admissions. It’s taken out of the university’s hands, tackling corruption in the education system," he explained.
Part of this dynamism in the government can be attributed to the age of the new leadership. "The government is extremely young – there are hardly any ministers over 40, and the president is 38," Khizanishvili said.
However, he continued, this can create tensions with earlier generations, which he illustrated in the context of efforts to reform the police. "The issue with people who have 20 years of experience is that 70% of that experience was in bribe taking and inappropriate means of interrogation. When recruiting new patrol police, past experience with the force is a drawback," he said.
Despite the new government’s successes in reforming civil administration, Khizanishvili was much more pessimistic about Georgia’s deteriorating relationship with Russia. Increasingly upset by Georgia’s moves to become closer to the West, Russia was responding with economic pressure and interference in the two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, he explained that Russia was increasingly upset by Georgia’s moves to become closer to the West, and was responding with economic pressure and by interfering in two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
"The breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia have been in a frozen conflict, with no resolution in sight. Russia is playing a very negative role, with its troops there as ‘peacekeepers,’ and they are trying to use this as leverage to influence Georgia."
As tensions have escalated, he said, the Russian government has restricted Georgian exports, interfered with gas supplies, and made life difficult for the many Georgians who are living in Russia. "Because of the region and tensions with Russia, investment is not coming in, and that is a big issue."
However, this is counterproductive, he said, explaining that "the only thing that the economic blockade and pressure against ethnic Georgians does is untie the people behind their leaders."
"Its not a conflict between two countries but between two mentalities," Khizanishvili explained.
"The Russian government’s mentality is of zero sum games and influence of conspiracies from outside," he said. "They believe that the Georgian government wants to break away from Russia but the Georgian people want to be close to Russia. This is dead wrong and I can’t believe that believe that so many people actually believe this," he explained.
In this difficult situation, "Georgia’s room for maneuver with the Russia is much less than you would imagine," Khizanishvili cautioned.
"What [Russia] wants us to do to improve the relationship – give up our connections with NATO, halt integration with the West, stop trying to regain our lost regions – there is no way we can do," he said.
"It is not worth the tradeoff and there is not much that Georgia can do," he concluded.
Charles De Simone, MALD 2007