American diplomacy lost a man who weighed with authority on the Euro-Atlantic partnership, at a point in time when this relationship is being remoulded. Georgia lost a friend and an anchor to the West, precisely at a moment where we still wander in a changing geopolitical sea without a rudder. Ambassador John Kornblum will be missed. I [...]
Georgia will hold parliamentary elections in 2024. That is unfortunately aligned with the electoral cycle of US Presidential elections and campaigning in the EU-27 as we near the European Parliamentary elections. The Republican primaries’ debate in the US offers the first indication of a resurging neo-isolationism. As for Europe, polling suggests the far-right forces are gaining [...]
Tedo Japaridze I acquainted with Neil Macfarlane since the last century: it was 1990 when we met each other for the first time at some round table held by the Georgian MFA to discuss the never-ending dilemma Georgia had been trying to resolve for centuries: how to preserve our identity and do that in a more [...]
Zuhdi Janbek is a prominent Jordanian statesman, politician and public figure. He held different high-level positions in the Jordanian hierarchy throughout his outstanding career, among them the post of the President of Circassian Charity Association in Jordan 2017 – 2020. Mr. Janbek is a prominent public security expert with 33 years of work. He used his [...]
Donald Rumsfeld was an anchor and a rudder. In the service of four Republican Presidents – Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and George W. Bush – Donald Rumsfeld was seen as a controversial figure to certain Americans because of his unapologetic, unyielding, and committed dedication to what each of these administrations defined as the America’s strategic agenda. [...]
Tedo Japaridze. In November of 2019, Ambassador Tedo Japaridze visited Japan invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the Japanese Embassy in Georgia. Here's an opinion piece of Mr. Japaridze published by the "Japan Up Close" site. It’s a platform in English that allows professionals in their fields both in and [...]
President George H.W. Bush will be missed not only as a historical leader but also for the style of leadership he brought to Washington: calculated, diligent, often bipartisan, driven by conviction, guided by humility, and resolute. Georgia owes him a great debt. […]
Helmut Kohl (wikiwand.com) Helmut Kohl, in hand with Edward Shevardnadze, Michael Gorbachev, and George H.W. Bush, convinced Europe to rise to the occasion and believe that history can progress, that unity and national sovereignty can go hand-in-hand, and that conflict is not inevitable when Germany is united. […]
Brzezinski at the Munich Security Conference, 2014. (www.securityconference.de) To anyone close enough to speak with him in first name terms, he was Zbig. A typical American habit of kerbingconsonant-rich names that echo history to sound short, familiar, and approachable. […]
Ambassador Tedo Japaridze is a former Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Parliament of Georgia. Every time someone in Brussels criticizes the Georgian government, a chain reaction begins in Tbilisi. With specs of truth, the opposition starts a fire designed to scorch the reputation of Georgia, while certain media will provide ventilation. It is not long before the whole […]
Bob Walsh The Memorial Service, remembering Bob Walsh, will be held on March 11 in Seattle… So today, indeed, is a sad, tough, rough day because Bob Walsh was my friend for 30 years. Maybe it was for even longer, it seemed that he was a part of my entire life. […]
Tedo Japaridze Former foreign minister of Georgia, former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in Georgia’s Parliament. Currently political advisor to PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili. It is with great regret that we received the news of the passing of Senator John Glenn, a man who best expressed the pioneering spirit of the American nation. […]
As Georgia made its first toddler steps in the community of free nations in 1992, Germany was there to help in a period of dramatic institutional, economic, diplomatic, and political transition. And the face of Germany for the world was none other than the patriarch of diplomacy, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who served Europe as much as his country for eighteen years.For nearly one generation, Mr. Genscher expressed a tradition of German diplomacy that identified German interests with Europe’s interests. No doubt, he will be missed. He represented a man who favored conflict management through negotiation, cooperation, dialogue, and consensus building. He had a vision of a unified Germany, in a unified Europe. And he played a part in laying its foundations.In 1992, Genscher was the first foreign minister of a European state to visit Tbilisi and Germany the first state to open an embassy. Eduard Shevardnadze and Hans-Dietrich Genscher had been working shoulder-to-shoulder for the reunification of Germany, and Europe. Their friendship was built on history, but the connection between nations is very often founded on the warmth between people who perhaps know they are making history, or they simply act with principles and integrity. […]
Alexander Rondeli Alexandre Rondeli (Alika for most of his Georgian friends and colleagues) was a charming and talented man, a close friend, a consul, a strategic ally, from the category of “usual suspects”, and, at times, a political opponent. Most of the people who dealt with him called him a “Wise Man of the Caucasus,” at times because he […]
Tedo Japaridze is Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Parliament of Georgia. There is indeed a civilizational cleavage between “Europe” and the South Caucasus. To encapsulate this cleavage in a single metaphor, one could say it is the difference between youth and age: the European sense of time seems youthful, with the certainty that […]
Tedo Japaridze is Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Parliament of Georgia. Alliance’s September summit must offer ‘concrete,’ not ‘token’ help as Georgia faces Russia In the same week that the European Union signed an association agreement with Georgia on June 27, NATO officials meeting in Brussels decided not to offer the country […]
Tedo Japaridze is Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Parliament of Georgia. Recently, I made a discovery of the kind that spices up historians’ books. In my archive, I discovered a draft of a letter by Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first Georgian President, directed to Secretary James Baker. The date was 1991. These were devastating but hopeful […]
Tedo Japaridze is Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Parliament of Georgia. For eight years, long before the 2008 war, I served as Ambassador of Georgia to Washington. At the time, the main issue at hand was capacity-building: to think in terms of policies, allocating competencies and tasks, preparing the normative ground, pinpointing […]
Tedo Japaridze is Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Parliament of Georgia. On June 5th, the New York Times was running an article entitled “Taliban Attack Kills 7 Georgian Soldiers in Afghanistan.” Despite the title, the article said very little about the circumstances surrounding this tragic event; it focused mostly on an analysis […]
Tedo Japaridze is Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Parliament of Georgia. What happened in October? The October 2012 parliamentary election gave Georgia a chance for normal development. Needless to say, a government assuming power through violence cannot be democratic. Thus, defeating the National Movement through the ballot box instead of […]
Tedo Japaridze is Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Parliament of Georgia. I hoped to publish this in an American newspaper during Speaker Usupashvili”s visit to Washington DC, a very successful one, by the way! I wanted Americans to read that message about Georgia and the recent developments there. I did not succeed, but I want to share […]
Tedo Japaridze is head of parliament’s foreign policy committee representing the Georgian Dream coalition. Adopting a bipartisan resolution on foreign policy in Georgia is significant both in terms of process and in terms of substance. In terms of process, anything bipartisan, in the first experience of a real bipolar party system, not least a cohabitation, should not be […]
Tedo Japaridze is chairman of parliament’s foreign affairs committee. Polemical reflections on the UNM’s proposal for the constitutionalization of Georgian Foreign Policy Constitutions are binding principles that are non-negotiable in the context of a polity. This is why principles enshrined in a Constitution set minimum benchmarks, […]
For many in the West, Mikheil Saakashvili remains the poster child of the Rose Revolution, an uncompromising promoter of democracy and defender of his country against Russia, and the incoming Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili is viewed as a shadowy and authoritarian […]
For those of us that retain their curiosity, willingness to fail and to learn, age is measured not in years but in lost friends. I lost a good friend – Greg Guroff. He died of an incurable disease but he fought strong for his life as he did in energetic and rich life – as a diplomat, […]
A Letter from Washington DC by Tedo Japaridze, former Georgian foreign minister, political advisor to Bidzina IvanishviliI shall wrap up my blitz visit to Washington DC by tomorrow, a place where I spent more than 8 years as Georgia’s Ambassador to the United […]
Prometheus is in the Cave! by Tedo Japaridze, former foreign minister of Georgia and political advisor to Bidzina Ivanishvili.Last year, the government of Georgia held a session of the cabinet in a grotto named after the mythical martyr of humanity, Prometheus, […]
The recently delivered speech by Michael Saakasvilli in Princeton University was a wholesome educational experience for every graduate in communication studies, writes Tedo Japaridze, former Foreign Minister of Georgia and an advisor to Bidzina Ivanishvili. Those who […]
Guido Westerwelle, a German Foreign Minister, a distinguished and energetic German politician, will soon be visiting Georgia. A visit by the German Foreign Minister in any corner of Europe these days is a significant event, writes former Georgian foreign minister, Ted […]
A number of articles and statements have been boosting our hopes that NATO membership is within Georgia’s grasp. There are several arguments made to this effect, some more serious than others, writes Tedo Djapharidze, Georgia's former ambassador to the United States. This rhetoric surely reflects a commitment to this objective, which no one disputes; [...]
Dear Amb. Yalowitz, I am writing to thank you for your compelling editorial in “Democracy and Freedom Watch” in which you rightly warn that my country is at a critical crossroads with upcoming parliamentary elections. I too share your concern that free, fair and transparent elections are being threatened by an increasingly authoritarian rule [...]
