An online discussion, "What does security mean for Georgia today", was held as part of a series of webinars of the Georgian thinktank Geocase. A series of webinars on defense and security organized by Geocase has been launched with the aim of increasing discussion on the security environment of Georgia, the principles of its defense arrangements, and the system’s development.

The first online discussion of the series was moderated by Giorgi Antadze, Director of Defense at Geocase, who focused on the importance of values in fundamental national security paradigms and theoretical methodologies.

"It seems easy to answer the question on what we protect, from whom we protect, and how we protect it. In fact, this is a very difficult question and the answer to these questions is based on the national security policy and strategy documents, understanding, and implementation of which are the goals of states in defense and security," Antadze said.

The speakers invited to the webinar, Lieutenant General Davit Tevzadze, Ph.D. and Professor of University of Georgia, Shalva Dzebisashvili discussed what security means for Georgia today, taking into account modern trends.

During the discussion, Professor Dzebisashvili spoke about the importance of universal socio-political consensus in the development of defense and security, education and active involvement of civil society. He also reviewed the principles of the strategic document on defense and national security.

"We need to know what we want and participate in the processes with a sense of civic responsibility. The strategic document of national security should be created on the basis of universal consensus and exclude political monopolization, which is a great challenge in our political reality and throws us off a healthy path," Dzebisashvili said.

Lieutenant General Davit Tevzadze, Ph.D. stressed the importance of the strategic assessment of values and the environment in determining state and national security and other policies. "Values are the beginning of everything and this answers the question – what goals should the state implement? In a given society, values are realized in the goals of the state, after which, based on the strategic assessment of the environment, a consistent chain of general policy or military policy is logically formed so that the state can fulfill its task for its citizens," he said.

At the end of the discussion, the moderator, Giorgi Antadze, summarized the first part of a series of discussions, which focused on the three most important questions for the theoretical foundations of strategic thinking – what we protect and from whom and what do we protect. He also promised to those interested another interesting discussion in this area as part of a series of defense and security webinars.