In the South Caucasus, the small state of Georgia has re-entered the news cycle of the Rules Based Order as being a problematic issue in the wake of attempts by the ruling Georgian Dream Party to reclaim control of its national information space from covert foreign influence. Consequently, they have been represented as being a “Russia friendly” party and ‘a danger to democracy’. The logic of the narrative is supported by an accompanying deluge of deceptive and manipulative propaganda that distorts the reality of the physical realm’s peoples, places and events in order to engineer public perception that affects the outcome of their interpretation, consensus and reaction to this highly mediatized event.
Binary Narrative Logic Meets Baudrillard’s Simulacra
The logic construct of the binary narratives creates a positing of a virtuous ideal and a vice or threat as the basis for a policy proposal (solution) to overcome a (geo)political conundrum. In the first phase of the narrative logic, a virtuous ideal is established, for example that the United States is the highest form of civilisational development. The second phase of the narrative logic involves establishing and clarifying a narrative construction that identifies a vice or point of instability, for example that Russia is an existential threat to the highest form of civilisational development. This binary sets the scene for a third narrative that resolves the binary narratives and the ‘problem’ they have created, for example more countries need to be like the US, and less countries like Russia.
Crucially, the accuracy of these narratives and, therefore, the logic of the argumentation is constructed via propagandistic organised persuasive communication. In 1981 Jean Baudrillard stated that mankind was living in an age simulation that was constructed by mass media. Defining Simulacra, “Jean Baudrillard argued it was increasingly difficult to separate representation from reality because we live in a culture of consumerism where the electronic mass media maintains the “illusion of an actuality” to keep us shopping and entertained.” In this article, it is not the manipulation of commercial consumerism that is the focus, but rather the deceit and manipulation involved in engineering public perceptions and facilitating their consent to the proposed course of foreign policy action.
Simulacra complements the use of the term propaganda as the news coverage departs the realm of reality and is an alternative imitation of the reality. Propaganda connects with simulacra as this is an emotionally manipulative based mass deception campaign intended to create the political outcome of regime change. These two tools are connected and coordinated.
Georgia as a Subject Versus Georgia as an Object: No Accident in Timing and Place
In 2003 the Rose Revolution overthrew the sitting Georgian Prime Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and replaced him with the US-backed Mikhail Saakashvili. This act of political warfare, effectively culminating in regime change by the US and its allies, was then characterised as a momentous and eternal moment in Georgian history in ideological terms. By joining the US ‘End of History’ moment, Georgia was branded and declared as becoming an object within the Rules Based Order’s sphere of influence. The requisite social, political and economic conditions had been present that facilitated political warfare against the Georgian State: a long period of economic downturn, a government that was increasingly disconnected from its people, a contested election event that mobilised an already primed people and, not least, the support of foreign governments eager to facilitate the subversion.
The successful regime change by the US-led Rules Based Order was celebrated with the branding of Georgia as having joined the Global North (albeit as a client state) and therefore entered the, ideologically speaking, highest form of ‘civilised’ society. This is the basis of the proposed virtuous ideal of the binary narrative, Georgia was declared as an ‘us’ by becoming part of the most ideologically developed and idealised form of political and social development, whilst Russia was presented as the uncivilised ideological society and threat to the idealised virtuous Rules Based Order.
The problems for the Rose Revolution government came, however, when they sought to re-establish some measure of control over their national information space and therefore lay the foundations for attempting to reclaim a measure of sovereignty in international relations as a subject. The problem Georgia faced was the need to avoid the increasing geopolitical risks caused by their being an object in an age when the Rules Based Order is in relative decline due to the rise of multipolarity (1). This being most clearly signified by the trends in the Ukraine War.
Regime Change Revisited: Reliving a Colour Revolution
A milestone on the road to a US-led political warfare campaign against the Georgian government came with the proposal to introduce a foreign agents’ registration law, which is based on the global grandfather law of the 1938 US Foreign Agents’ Registration Act (FARA). This move was prompted in no small part by the effect of the presence of some 25,000 NGOs in the small country and which therefore served as a massive conduit for foreign (read Western) influence. The level of foreign influence in the country is epitomised by the fact that the Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili was a French citizen and even born in France. When the government did not back down on continuing the political process of introducing the foreign agent law, the US and Western mainstream media shifted immediately into Colour Revolution mode. This was achieved using simulacra, or propaganda, to present Georgia as heading towards Russia’s ideological model by enacting the foreign agents’ law: foreign agents’ law was was twisted or rebranded into the name of the “Russia law”, therefore posing an existential threat to the virtuous ideal and, as a consequence, requiring the government be removed from power.
The narrative was set, for example via a 2024 Congressional Research Service report, that Georgia was off-track and needed to be put back on the ‘correct’ ideological path. Unfortunately, the US and the Rules Based Order holds a lot of leverage (political, economic, social and diplomatic) against the government, not to mention the obvious fact and opportunity for regime change during a national election. In spite of the massive propaganda and the Colour Revolution-type protests, the so-called Georgian Opposition failed to unseat the ruling party in what was a messy election made worse by US and EU meddling. This meddling was transparent in the uniform and specific rhetoric used across the mass media, and in the actions of the protestors (including foreign citizens) carrying signs in English (not the native Georgian language), with the US, EU and NATO flags of their foreign sponsors. Assertion propaganda and character assassination are key elements of the regime change process, which intends to generate a bandwaggon effect and a herd mentality that accepts the cognitive grooming of simulacra/propaganda as an accurate and genuine depiction and interpretation of the event.
The aim and intent of the political warfare operation in Georgia is to overwhelm the cognitive capacity and capability of the Georgian Dream government to cope with the crisis of information and communication during this latest Colour Revolution. It is a concentrated short-term operation emanating from the information domain to the cognitive domain of the country’s decision makers aiming to lure them into a false sense of helplessness and shame that compels them to resign, sealing the regime change goal. However, such events are increasingly difficult to sustain over time owing to the mental and physical effort required.
Ukrainianization of Georgia?
As noted by Sopo Japaridze, “While some Western nations might favour significant intervention, there’s little public appetite in Georgia for a ‘Maidan-style’ upheaval. This impasse could bring Georgia to a point of reckoning, challenging the country’s stability and unleashing chaos.” One of the elements of assertion propaganda has been the accusation of voting fraud by the government in the election, but not providing proof and refusing to appear to give proof as is the case with the Georgian President: “The Prosecutor’s Office seems to expect me to provide evidence. In any standard investigation, it’s the investigative body’s duty to gather proof, not the other way around. I’ve never seen an investigative authority ask a president for election-related evidence.” Those who support the sovereign rights of Georgia, such as Hungary’s Victor Orban, who has warned of the potential ‘Ukrainianisation’ process for Georgia, are subjected to character assassination from the submissive and loyal vassals and clients of the Rules Based Order: “Swedish PM says Orbán not a voice for Europe, possibly for Russia.”
First and foremost, this current attempted regime change is about determining whether Georgia’s has a future as a sovereign state that can act as a subject in its own interests, or as a geopolitical object of the Rules Based Order perhaps to be used against Russia now that the Ukraine War seems to be winding down as a defeat for the Global North. The choices are clear; a future of peace as a subject of international relations, or war and chaos as the next potentially ‘Ukrainianised’ geopolitical object.
- The world of contemporary international relations is in the process of transforming from a unipolar order with the US as the dominating hegemonic power towards a Non-Western centric multipolar order. With the hegemonic power in a state of relative decline, they tend to behave like someone drowning and will drown others in an effort to stay hegemon, just a little longer. This is evidenced by the use of Ukraine as a proxy to try to weaken and contain Russia as well as to reinforce Europe’s dependency and submission to Washington DC. Georgia’s attempt can be seen as a modest step towards hedging against possible geopolitical manipulations with Ukraine’s clear demise and likely collapse, a new proxy would be required.
(Featured Image: “9/11 Memorial in Georgia (the country)” by DDohler is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Cropped by Propaganda in Focus.)
