Stabilizing the Neighbourhood? The EU’s Contribution to SSR in Georgia

This article examines how the European Union (EU) has contributed to Security Sector Reform (SSR) in Georgia. SSR is a relatively new concept, which aims at creating a secure environment that is linked with democratic norms and institutions and which encompasses all the sectors and actors related to a state’s security and not only defence or intelligence forces. The European Security Strategy (ESS) identifies SSR as one of the main new possible missions of the EU’s foreign policy. Looking at the diverse EU programmes undertaken in Georgia and norms transference, the paper evaluates to what degree the EU has contributed to Georgian SSR, especially since the 2003 Rose Revolution. It is argued that in SSR the EU acts mainly as a ‘transmission belt’ of international norms and through bilateral ad hoc programmes. These results also show how the EU has increased its profile as a security provider, especially in the support of Georgian border management, and how the EU can become a security provider in areas of soft security such as judicial and law enforcement or police reform.