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A Road into the Future: Infrastructure Development in Georgia between Spectres of the Past and Promises of Connectivity

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  • Franziska Smolnik
Franziska Smolnik
German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/asiac-3533

Published 2026-03-30

Keywords

  • infrastructure,
  • Georgia,
  • developmental imaginaries,
  • spatial-temporal scales,
  • scale-making

How to Cite

Smolnik, F. (2026). A Road into the Future: Infrastructure Development in Georgia between Spectres of the Past and Promises of Connectivity. ASIAC – Studies on Central Asia and the Caucasus (SCC). https://doi.org/10.36253/asiac-3533

Copyright (c) 2026 Franziska Smolnik

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Successive Georgian governments have sought to establish their country as a transnational transport and logistics hub. These endeavours have been embedded in, and have reinforced, a related developmental vision where infrastructure development is seen as key to facilitating regional, national, and sub-national development. Focusing on the Kvesheti-Kobi construction project, a major road development project on Georgia’s north-south corridor, the paper seeks to think through road infrastructure development from the perspective of scale-making in both its spatial and temporal dimension. It does so by exploring the temporal and spatial reach that is reflected in the discourse supporting the construction project as well as in counter-narratives. The paper demonstrates that in the discourse in support of the project and the one contesting it, spatial-temporal references reflect specific civilisational spectres, which also have geopolitical overtones. The different spatial-temporal imaginaries evince distinct approaches to the past, present, and future. While they remain largely compartmentalised, both affirmative discourse and counter-narratives ultimately revolve around the future being speculative and uncertain. This renders the future essentially a field for political engagement and struggle, emphasising the political dimension of scale-making. The paper contributes to the growing body of research on infrastructure and infrastructure development that challenges its seemingly technical and depoliticised nature.

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