On March 25, at 15:00, Caucasus University International Research Center for Georgia Studies will organize a public lecture and discussion with historian Beka Kobakhidze on the topic - "Colonization, Decolonization and Recolonization of Georgia".

The annexation of Georgia by the Russian Empire occurred during the "Era of Empires." While this period brought colonial oppression, discrimination, and Russification, it also introduced what historians refer to as the mission civilisatrice. In 1918, the "Era of Empires" came to an end, and the "Short Twentieth Century" began, the age of nation-states and nationalism. Throughout the twentieth century, Georgia made two attempts at decolonization—in 1918 and 1991, both times, the Russian Empire returned.

The lecture will discuss what global history teach us about these processes, what happened, and what to expect.

The meeting will be held at the Caucasus University Library. Those wishing to attend should register at the following link.

Information about the speaker: Beka Kobakhidze received his PhD from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University in 2015. He is currently a professor at Ilia State University and co-director of the Master’s Program in Modern Georgian History.

He has lectured at the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA), the University of Georgia, and Caucasus University. From 2022 to 2024, he was a visiting scholar at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. In 2018-2019, Beka Kobakhidze was a visiting scholar at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Oxford. His research interests include the foreign policy of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-1921), the historical intersection of geopolitical interests of Russia and the Western powers in the Caucasus region, and the regional history of the Caucasus in the 19th and 20th centuries.

In addition, Beka Kobakhidze is a practitioner: from 2009 to 2015, he worked in the European Union Monitoring Mission to Georgia. From 2015 to 2019, he headed the Education and Professional Development Department at the Ministry of Defense of Georgia. Between 2019 and 2022, he worked in the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.