The internal and external factors in the " Rose Revolution" of Georgia

Document Type : Research Paper

Abstract
      Soft “revolution” or “revolution without violence”, in some of the newly independent countries of Central Asia and Caucasus has become one of the main subjects for scholarly debates in international politics after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Due to the direct role of the US in these nonviolent regime changes, the importance of foreign factors in explaining these events has become a focal point. Rose revolution of Georgia in 2003, causing the downfall of Eduard Shevardnadze is a clear example. In Georgia, the convergence of the domestic factors and foreign interventions has been the main question. It is however, argued in this paper that the domestic crisis has been mainly stemmed from not having an indigenous, smooth, and timely process of nation-building; crisis that has been manipulated by Washington.  Having said all these, the question would be: under which conditions are such revolutions repeatable in other cases? Addressing this question can be useful both theoretically as well as practically, especially by those independent states who are being challenged by the US.