Ann Tsurtsumia-Zurabashvili | Law and Government
Ann Tsurtsumia-Zurabashvili
E-mail: ann.tsurtsumia@dcu.ie
Ann Tsurtsumia-Zurabashvili, is Marie Curie Fellow at Dublin City University, and has extensive experience working in international development projects in Georgia. She led the Political Party Assistance Programme at the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) and Parliamentary Communications Center at the National Democratic Institute (NDI) (2009-2013). She has served as a Policy Fellow at the Georgian Foundation for Security and International Studies (GFSIS) (2011-2012). In 2012-2013 she provided strategic planning consultancy to the biggest watchdog in Georgia, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), and the East-West Management Institute. Furthermore, Ann has contributed to number of research projects on strategic planning in political parties, achieving gender balance in the parliament and the role of civil society in policy formulation.
Ann brings a long and successful track record in youth activism: she is a co-founder of European Youth Parliament – Georgia and a Supervisory Board Member of Youth Atlantic Treaty Organization. She has taught modules on EU Welfare Regimes and Strategic Planning at Ilia State University (Georgia).
She holds and MA in European Studies from Tallinn/Tampere Universities, and BA in International Relations from Tbilisi State University.
PhD research project: Counter-recognition and reintegration strategies towards de facto states in the post-Soviet space.
Supervisor: Dr Donnacha Ó Beacháin
The research project aims to establish an account of the strategies implemented by Georgia, Azerbaijan and Moldova with regards to the four unrecognised/de facto states of the former USSR (Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria) in an attempt to prevent the international recognition of the seceded entities. To make a meaningful comparison, this research incorporates all the existing cases in the post-Soviet space: three parent states and respectively, four de facto states. The study argues that parent states in the post-Soviet space have followed different paths to restore territorial integrity and contest the international recognition of their breakaway regions; at the same time, they face common territorial disputes and the intention to counter the secession.
The proposed research focuses on the following research question: How do parent states prevent international recognition of the seceded entities and attempt to restore the territorial integrity? The primary research question encompasses identification of the strategies employed by the parent states to contest the recognition of breakaway regions and reintegrate them into their state and overall impact of those counter-recognition strategies. This study will reflect on the different perspectives: the parent states, patron states, great powers and the de facto states. The proposed dissertation project will add to the knowledge on the de facto states, the issue of territorial integrity in the post-Soviet space and the practice of the state recognition.
Academic Conferences:
- ASCN and CI International Conference “De-facto entities in the post-Soviet space: dynamics and prospects”, September 4-5, 2014, Lake Sevan, Armenia, paper on the impact of Georgia’s non-recognition policy.
- BASEES, paper: “Counter recognition and reintegration strategies towards de facto states in the post-Soviet Space”, Cambridge, UK, 28-30 March 2015
- 20th Annual ASN World Convention, paper: “Evolution of Georgia’s Reintegration Policy – Analysis of presidential addresses”, Columbia University, New York, USA, 23-25 April, 2015.
- Speaker, “Doing fieldwork in Russia and the former Soviet Union: Challenges and Opportunities”, the Russian & Eurasian Security Research Group, Department of War Studies, King’s College London, British International Studies Association (BISA), May 22, 2015.
Publications:
- Gender Equality Index of Political Parties in Georgia, Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD), Tbilisi, Georgia, 2014. http://nimd.ge/doc/NIMD_Genderranking_Political%20Parties_ENG-new.pdf
- Competition winner essay: Internal Displacement: IDPs and development in Georgia (შეწყვეტილი ცხოვრების ახალი დასაწყის იძულებით გადაადგილება – დევნილობა და განვითარება საქართველოში), Council of Europe, Ombudsman of Georgia, January, 2015
- Problem of a researcher with the non-recognition policy (ერთი მკვლევრის და არაღიარების პოლიტიკის პრობლემა), Radio Free Europe, Georgia, March 2015 http://www.radiotavisupleba.ge/content/tavisupali-sivrtse-ana-tsurtsumi…
- Conflicts in Kosovo and Abkhazia, Georgia: Should Kosovo serve as a precedent for Abkhazia? ISBN 978-3-639-05810-9 VDM Publishing House
- Policy Paper: Achieving Gender Balance in the Parliament of Georgia, GFSIS Policy Paper Series 2012
- Political Party Assistance Programme , NIMD, 2012 ISBN / EAN: 978-90-79089-18-5