Georgia in US-Russia hegemony competition and Rose revolution

This study deals with the importance given by Russia and the USA toGeorgia in their rivalry for gaining upperhand in the Caucasus region, over itsenergy routes and even for mastery in Eurasia, and makes important predictionsabout the nature of new methods of power struggle in the 21st century.Georgia is perceived to be an important country to be controlled as it issituated on the energy routes and it remains at the centre of important ethnicconflicts. The desire of Russia, who ruled the country for a long time, and of theUSA, who has different objectives for the region in the 21st century, to influencethis country leads to struggle between them.Although Russia regards Georgia as its own backyard, America?s policytowards Georgia, which employs elements of soft power for some and aimshegemony for others, seems to be successful. Pro-American Saakashvili?s comingto power through a Velvet Revolution shows that civil society activities may bedecisive in influencing internal political change in the new era. In the case ofGeorgia, it is clear that the traditional elements of power (especially military poweralone) is not sufficient for influencing political change; economic power,domination over information transmission and civil society activities are alsorequired.The ideas that different elements of power be employed for gaining theposition of hegemony have become more popular after the Revolution in Georgia.It is among the conclutions of this study that, like it was during the bi-polarperiod, balance of power policies are not successful in the new era. AlthoughGeorgia pursued balance of power policy between Russia and the USA underShevardnadze, the USA dismissed this policy as against to its position ofhegemony. To recall that Saakashvili and all of the people in his cabinet areeducated in the USA shows sufficiently that this was the American position.