Built with years of American funding, training, and strategic engagement, the Georgian Defense Forces (GDF) were once considered a showcase of successful post-Soviet military reform. That legacy is now in jeopardy. While Washington debates democratic standards, it risks overlooking the quiet erosion of a key US security investment.

As a small country in an unstable but strategically important region, finding sustainable security and a geopolitical “home” was always going to be a challenge for Georgia. The location of the South Caucasus at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East meant that external powers have long vied for influence there, often stoking conflict among regional states. In Georgia’s case, its search for security was further complicated by internal divisions in Georgian society, which often made the country easy pickings for larger neighbors with predatory designs.