The Relationship of Geopolitical Genome to Foreign Policy: the Case of Russian Federation and Georgia

The application of concepts of other sciences can be beneficial for researcher’s understanding of political and international arrangements. One of the concepts that have been used in Geopolitics is the concept of "Code" and "Genome". Geopolitical Genome is the political genetic map of countries that influence the behavior of countries in the domestic and particularly foreign arena. Countries consider the genomes of other actors as geopolitical codes. Interaction or confrontation of countrie's code/ genome create an atmosphere that may be in line or inconsistent with national and regional interests. While aiming to identify the geopolitical components affecting Russia and Georgia, the paper attempts to answer the following question: what are the effects of Geopolitical tools on Russian and Georgian Foreign Policy? The hypothesis of this paper is that the gene of ‘great power’ ideology, as well as geo-economic position of Russian Federation versus national minorities, separatism, geostrategic and crossing codes as well as the geo-economic dependence of Georgia, has paved a way for the political exploitation of Georgia by Russian Federation. The results show that there are active and dominant genes with regards to Georgia including: national minorities, separatism, tendency for anti-Russian and trans-regional institutionalism and Atlantisism, geostrategic and crossing situation and geo-economic dependence. With regards to Russia, dominant and active genes such as geo-economy, great power idea, NATO and EU eastward expansion, Russian compatriots in soviet era and geographical greatness that affect both countrie's foreign policy.