PUBLIC LECTURE: Heinrich Boell Foundation South Caucasus regional office presents: Florian Mühlfried's "Moments of mistrust in South Caucasus". via @Boell_SC

On December 7, 2018, Heinrich Boell Foundation's South Caucasus organized a public lecture with social anthropologist Florian Muehlfried.

Moments of mistrust in South Caucasus is his article, published at Heinrich Boell Foundation's website. You can read the article here: Moments of Mistrust in the South Caucasus [ge.boell.org]

Facebook: facebook.com/hbf.caucasus

Twitter: twitter.com/Boell_SC

Website: ge.boell.org

LECTURE: Marketing reforms: the dimension of narratives in Georgia's anti-corruption reforms. Von Lili Di Puppo (uni-jena.de)

Wir laden ein zu einem Gastvortrag von Dr. (des.) Lili Di Puppo (National Research University - Higher School of Economics Moscow/Russia) zum Thema:

Marketing reforms: the dimension of narratives in Georgia's anti-corruption reforms.

The presentation will discuss the mechanisms of the "production of success" in Georgia's fight against corruption after the Rose Revolution of November 2003. First, it will examine how the government under Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has sought to establish a specific frame of interpretation to read its anti-corruption activities and has promoted a particular narrative of success. Anti-corruption reforms were prioritised that could achieve quick results and "showcase success" by becoming "success stories". Second, it will analyse the process of validation of this narrative by external actors by examining cases where Georgia's image of success is sustained or questioned. The World Bank's promotion of the narrative of Georgia as a "world's top reformer" provides an illustration of a successful validation of the country's image. In contrast, the cases of the adoption of a national anti-corruption strategy and the reform of the audit institution Chamber of Control reveal the limits of the validation of this image as the government is confronted with alternative discourses. Finally, the elections' period of 2012 will be examined as revealing at the same time the "stickiness" of the reformer narrative, but also its limits as the inherent contradictions in the Saakashvili government's representation of success are increasingly brought to light during this period.

Der Vortrag wird gehalten am Mittwoch, dem 09.01.2013, 16.00 Uhr im Seminarraum 101, Jenergasse 8 (Accouchierhaus).

näheres unter: uni-jena.de

LECTURE: Georgia Diary: A Chronicle of War and Political Chaos in the Post-Soviet Caucasus (events.berkeley.edu)

Lecture | February 23 | 12-1 p.m. | Stephens Hall, Geballe Room (220 Stephens)

Speaker: Thomas Goltz

Sponsors: Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Institute of (ISEEES), Townsend Center for the Humanities

Thomas Goltz will be making a multi-media presentation on his latest book: "Georgia Diary: A Chronicle of War and Political Chaos in the Post-Soviet Caucasus." First released in late 2006 as the third part of his unplanned 'Caucasus Trilogy,' Georgia Diary is a fast-paced, boots-(barely)-on-the-ground exploration of the lynch-pin Caucasus country during its time of chaos 1991-2000, with a primary focus on the war over Abkhazia, the return (and ruin) of Eduard Shevardnadze and the eventual rise of Mikheil Saakashvili and his Rose Revolution of 2003 and its 'glorious' aftermath, when Georgia appeared to have lifted itself out of the post-Soviet morass and firmly situated itself within the matrix of western interests in the region, including the aspiration to become a full member of NATO. Then came the so-called ‘Olympics War’ with Russia of August 2008, when Goltz returned to Georgia at the height of the crisis, culling notes from players high and low to serve as the basis of a brand new, no-holds barred 20,000 word action and analysis Epilogue of the original book, to be released in paperback in February 2009.

Before returning to academia in 2006, Thomas Goltz spent some twenty-five years in the field as a journalist and has written for most leading US publications, including the New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal (as well as The Nation and Soldier of Fortune) His "Azerbaijan Diary"(M.E. Sharpe, 998/99) has been hailed as ‘essential reading for all post-Sovietologists.’ His second book on the Caucasus, "Chechnya Diary" (St Martins, 2003), is regarded as a classic exploration of the reality of war-correspondence, and how ‘the observer affects the observed.’ A memoir about his days as an itinerant actor in Africa in the late 1970s was issued as "Assassinating Shakespeare" (Saqi, 2006), and is now being considered as a possible film. Fluent or functional in German, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Russian, and Arabic, Goltz has lectured at most leading US universities and foreign policy-related institutes. Goltz is currently an adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science at Montana State University, Bozeman.

His web site is: www.thomasgoltz.com