Professional collaboration between students and lecturers of the Caucasus School of Governance (CSG) often extends beyond the classroom and individual courses, continuing through independent initiatives, research activities, and professional practice.

A clear example of this is SSI Youth Voices, a popular-academic online publication focused on security and contemporary threats, whose first issue was published in September 2026.

The initiative to create the publication belongs to Megi Benia, lecturer of the Hybrid Threats course at the Caucasus School of Governance. Senior students of the School’s Diplomacy and International Relations program became actively involved in bringing the idea to life. Alongside contributing as authors, they gained practical experience in editorial work, working with texts, preparing an issue for publication, and managing the publication process.

A particularly important contribution to the preparation of the first issue was made by Salome Nadashvili, a student of the Master’s Program in Strategic Public Administration at the Caucasus School of Governance, who, together with lecturer Megi Benia, undertook the editing of the entire issue. The publication has an editorial team composed of CSG graduates, giving young authors an opportunity to gain practical experience in the full process from manuscript preparation to publication through collaboration with their peers.

The first issue features works by eight graduates of the Caucasus School of Governance, addressing various aspects of contemporary security, hybrid threats, information operations, deterrence, and modern warfare:

• Ana Kakulia, “Remaining Below the Threshold of State Responsibility: Russia’s Use of the Wagner Group in Bakhmut”
• Lizi Tolordava, “Ukraine’s Information Operations: Winning over Narratives during the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War”
• Davit Bakradze, “The Impact of Influence Operations and Hybrid Means on Conventional Warfare”
• Rati Mamaladze, “Hybrid Warfare and the Changing Nature of Conflict: Implications for State Security on the Case of Hezbollah-Israel Conflict of 2006”
• Lizi Oniani, “Russia’s Influence Operations Against Georgia: Understanding Hybrid Threats and Strategic Thinking”
• Ketevan Ioseliani, “Democratic Deterrence in the Gray Zone: NATO and Critical Undersea Infrastructure in the Baltic Sea”
• Ana Javakhishvili, “Russian Influence Operations Against the United States During the 2016 and 2024 Presidential Elections”
• Luka Beridze, “Appeasing Russia: The Escalation of the Kremlin’s Aggressive Policy and the Failure of Western Soft Deterrence”

SSI Youth Voices provides young authors with an opportunity to transform the knowledge and research experience gained at university into analytical works intended for a broader audience, while also gaining practical insight into the various stages of the publication process.

This initiative is another clear example of professional, practice-oriented collaboration beyond the classroom among students, graduates, and lecturers of the Caucasus School of Governance. The research-oriented environment of the academic program and the professional relationships developed through the learning process become a foundation for independent ideas, practical experience, and new opportunities.

SSI Youth Voices has announced a call for submissions for its second issue, The Future of Warfare: How Conflict Is Changing in the 21st Century. The publication is open to students of higher education institutions across Georgia, who are invited to submit original research essays on the transformation of contemporary warfare and conflict.