On October 1, 2019, the Georgian Institute of Politics (GIP) hosted a public lecture and roundtable discussion in the framework of the Horizon 2020 EU-LISTCO project to dissect the risks coming from contestations of the liberal international order, and to discuss ways to foster societal resilience in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries. The event took place at the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University.

The event kicked off with the public lecture, “Contestations of the Liberal International Order from Within – The US and Europe Compared,” hosted by Prof. Tanja Börzel & Prof. Thomas Risse. Prof. Dr. Tanja A. Börzel is professor of political science and holds the Chair for European Integration at the Otto-Suhr-Institute for Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin. Prof. Dr. Thomas Risse is director of the Center for Transnational Relations, Foreign and Security Policy at the Otto-Suhr- Institute of Political Science at the Freie Universität Berlin.

In their public lecture, Prof. Börzel and Prof. Risse dissected the main challenges of limited statehood and contested order, and discussed the importance of strengthening resilience in the EaP countries and maintaining trust in the EU institutions. “An attitude that “one size fits all” has failed and the EU needs a new institutional design for EaP,” – stated Prof. Börzel.

The following discussion focused on how the EU can best support the three frontline EaP states on the rocky road to building resilient societies in a fragmented and politically volatile region. The roundtable discussion “Between Limited Statehood and Contested Orders: How to Foster Societal Resilience in the EaP Countries” featured EU-LISTCO partners Dr. Agnieszka Legucka (Polish Institute of International Affairs), Maksym Bugriy (Ukrainian Institute of Public Policy), and Prof. Kornely Kakachia (Director, GIP). In addition, the panel included H.E. Hubert Knirsch (Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Georgia) and H.E. Giedrius Puodžiūnas (Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to Georgia), who remarked on the policies on the ground and the instruments that the EU countries bring to strengthen Georgia’s democracy and resilience. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Stefan Meister (Director, South Caucasus Office, Böll Foundation).

The EU-LISTCO is a research consortium that consists of fourteen partner organizations and is financed by European Union’s Horizon 2020 framework. The project explores the challenges of areas of Limited Statehood and Contested Orders in Europe’s Eastern and Southern neighbourhoods. GIP and IDC Herzliya co-lead work package three, which analyzes the impact of global and diffuse risks in EU’s neighborhood regions.