THE SASAKAWA PEACE FOUNDATION

Confidence and Capacity Building among Young South Caucasian Leaders

8,900,000 yen (Grant Project)
Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies (GFSIS, Georgia)

Although the states in the South Caucasian area, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, have become independent, , this area is still suffering from ethnic conflicts and needs security cooperation for the stabilization of and confidence building in the area. Under the current situation, SPAF has been supporting the Capacity Building in Strategic Decision Making: Lessons from the Development Experience in the Asia-Pacific Region project. The present project, Phase II of the original project, aims to foster young Caucasian leaders and build confidence among them by holding workshops introducing experience in East Asia.
Activities of the year will be as follows.

Selection of workshop participants (August 2006)
Applicants will be screened based on age, career, and English ability. Final selection will be based on individual interviews in Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia. A get-together meeting will be planned for present and past participants for one of the follow-up activities.
Workshops (Two weeks in October 2006 at GFSIS)
Five participants from each country, a total 15 participants, will attend the workshop to discuss South Caucasian security issues and experience in East Asia. East Asian security experts will be invited as instructors. After the workshop, all participants will receive certificates of completion. The participants will receive surveillance papers to evaluate their experience.

(Second year of a 3-year project)