Opening Debate: The Future of Democracy, Security, and Economic Policy in the Region

A conversation with Thomas Carothers and Gerald Knaus, moderated by Matteo Fumagalli

Gulnara Alimbayeva, SPP, MPA 2015 reports

• How can a triangle of democracy, economic policy, and security be made equilateral?
• Why have post-Soviet countries lost 20 to 25 years and fallen off the democratization track?
• Did the conditionalities contained in EU bilateral agreements work?
• Is EU membership a panacea for some countries?
• Who should be blamed?

These are just some of the questions that workshop participants struggled to answer.  The discussion was characterized by an honest sharing of ideas about the experiences of different countries, a recognition of the failures and missed opportunities, a passion to make things better, and, in the end, a consensus: that there was enough blame to go around, and that in spite of previous failures and mistakes, countries are still able to bring about positive change.

The free trade agreement and liberalization of visa regulations that took place during the enlargement wave were remembered in a positive light, and elicited jokes from, and directed at, the participants from Georgia that “Georgians are champions of missed opportunities.” Unfortunately, the country is very much behind. Workshop participant Giorgi Gogia (Senior Europe and Central Asia Researcher at Human Rights Watch, Georgia) commented that the EU is constantly struggling to propose new agreements.  Brussels is dealing with conditionality fatigue now. The participants commented repeatedly about the lack of strategic leadership, sustainability, and the necessity for the EU bilateral agreements to be country-specific and demand-driven. The delegates from Moldova noted that their country lacked leadership, strategies, and keeps blaming the West and Russia. Very few blame themselves for being behind.

There was extensive discussion about whether a certain amount of freedom is part of being a member of the EU.  Several participants, noting the situation in Hungary today, agreed that EU membership is no guarantee of democracy.

There was a general consensus that there was a need to stop blaming any one country and to move on.  “The test of policy is how it ends, not how it begins [1]."