Abkhazia Institute for Social and Economic Research

 By Ushangi Rezhinashvili, Ramaz Mitaishvili, Irakli Gagua
Public diplomacy refers to diplomatic activities that directly reach out, in cooperation with the private sector, to the people and public opinions of foreign countries as opposed to traditional diplomatic activities that are conducted between governments.

We witness sad and tragic things on the news every day. Does this mean that we are living lives so full of blessings that it is the unhappy things that make the news? Yes, it is probably because we are overly “blessed.” All Georgian people are living in a middling kind of way. That is what might have fostered the mentality that all Georgian are “rich” class. People have houses to live in, even if they are small houses; if you open the refrigerator door, there is always food inside. The lives that we live, in which we can take such things for granted, are surely blessings, and I think everyone has become used to this fact.
In Russia, where the sources are enormous at a tremendous rate, there are many people barely able to eke out a living in upcountry villages. There are also many people who are illiterate. As receiving an education is a special experience, children who can go to school are full of joy at being able to study. If you never leave Georgia, you cannot know what Georgia is really like. We believe that we need to know more about what Georgia looks like from the perspective of other countries. We feel that what Georgians need to do now is to keep such a perspective firmly in mind as a basis. For Georgia, We suppose that the basic principle of international relations is to share with others “the things we have too much of, and the things we do not have enough of.” Since it is we humans who have “drawn” lines on the surface of the earth to create nation states, we humans must also be the ones who can “erase” those lines. We feel that there can be no future in sight unless more people adopt a greater global mindset instead of a national one.
It is amazing that people living in different countries have heard of us.