Foreign policy and domestic constraints: what political regimes can and cannot do in Georgia
However, the significance of the events goes beyond the boundaries of street protests or party politics. It has showcased the limits of Georgia’s attempts to normalize relations with Russia and highlighted the irreversibility of the country’s pro-Western foreign policy. Both for current and future Georgian governments, this serves as a lesson that Georgian society exercises a veto against any accomodationist foreign policy toward Russia. For scholars of international relations, this is a textbook case of how societies in semi-democratic countries set boundaries and define do’s and don’ts for the foreign policy behavior of ruling regimes.