Kornely Kakachia is a Professor of Political Science and Jean Monnet Chair at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Georgia. He is also the Director of the Tbilisi-based think tank Georgian Institute of Politics. His current research focuses on Georgian domestic and foreign policy, security issues of the wider Black Sea area, and comparative party politics. He was a recipient of IREX and OSI fellowships and was a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Black Sea Security program (2009–2010), Harriman Institute, Columbia University (2011), and The Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. Prof. Kakachia is co-editor of the books titled Georgia’s Foreign Policy in the 21st Century: Challenges for a Small State (London, New York: I.B. Tauris, 2021) and Security Dynamics in the Black Sea Region: Geopolitical Shifts and Regional Orders (Springer, 2024). His analysis has been published in multiple policy and academic peer-reviewed journals including European Security, Democratization, Europe Asia Studies, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Nationalities