Stephen F. Jones is Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies, Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, USA

Preface Introduction Part 1: Good Neighbors, Bad Neighbors 1. The Role of Geopolitics and Foreign Powers in the Modern History of Georgia: Comparing 1918-1921 and post-1991 Periods 2. The Russian-Georgian War and its Implications for Georgia's State-Building 3. Georgia's European Aspirations and the Eastern Partnership 4. Georgia as a Geographical Pivot: Past, Present, Future 5. Georgia's Military and Civil Security Challenges Part 2: Creating Democracy, Building States 6. Georgia's Ethnic Diversity: A Challenge to State-Building 7. The Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-1921) and the Search for the Democratic Model of Georgia 8. The Democratic Republic of Georgia: Forgotten Lessons for our Democracy 9. March of the Goblins - Permanent Revolution in Georgia Part 3: Home for Whom? 10. A Fateful Moment: Ethnic Autonomy and Revolutionary Violence in the Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-1921) 11. "From Words to Action!" Nationality Policy in Soviet Abkhazia, 1921-38 12. Unpacking the Meta-Conflict: Claims to Sovereignty, Self-Determination and Territorial Integrity in the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict Part 4: The Power of the Past 13. The Young Stalin and Revolution in Georgia 14. "The Russian Occupation in 1921" and the "Russian-Georgian War of August 2008" - Historical Analogy as a Memory Project

This book compares and contrasts Georgia's First Republic, which lasted from 1918 until suppressed by Bolshevik Soviet forces in 1921, with the present Georgian Republic, which gained its independence when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.