The Security Risks of State Capture: Georgia’s Cautionary Tale

报告摘要

State capture is widely studied within democratic backsliding processes, yet its security implications remain insufficiently explored. By subordinating national interests to elite survival, captured governance weakens institutional resilience, distorts strategic decision-making and undermines security-sector effectiveness. State capture is, as such, an endogenous security threat. Once a frontrunner of democratic reform in the EU’s Eastern Partnership, Georgia has experienced sustained autocratisation.