The dialectics of small states: Foreign policy making in Armenia and Georgia

The disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s resulted in the independence of its constituent republics and the addition of fifteen countries to the international political system. These new countries struggled with the state-making task with considerable difficulty because of their lack of experience in statehood. Moreover, the changing international system rendered their state-building process thornier. Two countries in the South Caucasus---Armenia and Georgia---have faced numerous challenges in creating stable, viable and functioning states since their independence in 1991, while at the same time tackling ethnic and civil wars, building state institutions and interacting with other actors in the regional and international domains.; This dissertation focuses on the foreign policy making processes in Armenia and Georgia, but it also aims to survey, examine and critique the literature pertaining to the theory of small states. Thus far, the field of studying small state foreign policy has been conditioned by the Cold War balance of power system, which disregards some of the attributes that small states are able to contribute to the analysis of foreign policy. To remedy this, the research examines the way small states conduct foreign policy and adapt to changing international political systems by forging alliances with larger neighbors and by becoming active in international organizations. In four separate sections, the dissertation analyzes the various concepts related to small states. Then it examines the political reality in the South Caucasus during the post-Cold War era, after which it focuses on the foreign policies of Armenia and Georgia. The latter employs the theoretical discussions on small states as well as interviews and statements of foreign policy formulators within each country. Finally a discussion of Armenian-Georgian bilateral relations addresses the dynamics of small state interaction with each other.