President Initiates Security Strategy Update

National Security Council’s Secretariat announced on February 13 the launch of nationwide discussions for developing the country’s “unified” National Security Strategy.

President Giorgi Margvelashvili first spoke on the matter in his opening speech at the inaugural session of the newly elected Parliament on November 18.

“Global political context, the challenges facing the country and the transformed security environment in the Black Sea region require updating the national security policy,” President Margvelashvili told the parliamentarians then. 

Responding to these challenges, Margvelashvili outlined, necessitated updating the national and agency-level strategic documents and developing the “unified” security document based on them, and with participation of civil society representatives and the country’s high-ranking officials.

NSC Secretary Davit Rakviashvili, who voiced the initiative again in conversation with Rustavi 2 on February 11, stated that “new approaches” need to be elaborated, citing “changes in the global security architecture and the diversification of threats.”

Rakviashvili explained that “broad public participation” is necessary in the process. “Without unified national approach, it will be difficult to generate the resolve, that the nation will need to cope with these hybrid threats,” Rakviashvili added.

He also expressed hope that the Georgia’s security-related agencies would support and participate in the process, which, in the words of Rakviashvili, will start in the second half of February.

The NSC released a statement on February 13 saying that the NSC Secretariat and the President’s administration will launch “the process of strategic discussions and dialogue, the purpose of which, is to develop Georgia’s National Security Strategy through consultations with Georgian citizens.”

Here again, the NSC spoke on the changes in the global security environment, as well as the diversity of threats, and argued for “updating approaches, so that adequate responses are given to existing challenges.”

“The strategy should respond to security-related challenges and define the implementation mechanisms of common national priorities – national sovereignty, territorial integrity, freedom, stability and Euro-Atlantic integration,” the statement clarified.

The NSC emphasized that “the involvement and awareness of the public” strengthens “one of the core pillars of contemporary security system – national willpower and resolve,” which it considers “crucial” in countering the contemporary threats.

The NSC expressed hope that “an open and non-bureaucratic process” will be pursued with participation of security-related state institutions, security community, national and particularly, regional media and other societal groups.

The role of the NSC, which is chaired by the President whose authorities have been significantly downsized by the constitution that went into force in November, 2013, was sidelined by the security and crisis management council, which was established late 2013 and which is chaired by the Prime Minister.