This paper analyses the potential effects that the systemic developments stemming from the global financial crisis and the August war are likely to have in Georgia, within a context of hegemonic stability theoretical fundamentals. According to this perspective, both events have undermined the role of the US as the sole world hegemon. As a result, the Western strategic priorities toward the Caucasus are likely to shift, to the detriment of the special relationship between the Saakashvili administration and the US. To demonstrate this, the analysis will focus on the case study provided by energy- and transit-related Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), as the Georgian political and economic dependence on a geopolitical rent is strongly connected to them and is likely to disappear in the aftermath of the recent events.

Russia has been badly affected by the economic crisis, because in the boom years - when it was able to rely on oil and gas exports - it had not diversified its economic base or introduced any major structural economic reforms, speakers agreed at an EPC Policy Dialogue organised with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and with World Bank support. They hoped the crisis would spur Moscow to introduce reforms, particularly to modernise the banking sector, public administration and governance structures.