Welcome address by Dr. Joachim Faust, Washington University in St. Louis/International Academy for Leadership in Business and Administration

Gamardzhobat,

my name is Joachim Faust, I am a professor in International Studies at Washington University in St. Louis , and I am also representing the International Academy for Leadership in Business and Administration, which was founded by my colleague and friend Mark Tourevski. I am very glad and honored to be able to say a few words of welcome to your conference. I would love to be able to be in Tbilisi and deliver this message in person, but unfortunately this was not possible.

What I would like to share with you here are a few thoughts about what Georgia means to me personally and what it means to my students. I came to Georgia for the first time in 2004 and I have been back to your country every year since then, altogether 8 times. On each of these occasions, I have brought groups of American students with me – students whose spheres of interest are very general, not at all focussed on Georgia or the South Caucasus – they study international relations, international politics, and intercultural studies. Now, why are we coming to Georgia specifically? Obviously, in order to study international and intercultural relations you could go anywhere in the world. The answer is simple: in our experience, Georgia is a very special place, and I want to talk a little bit about what it is that makes Georgia so special for us.

There are many possible answers to this question which are pretty unsurprising and obvious. They are the answers you can find in any brochure for tourists – there are the unbelievably beautiful landscapes of Georgia , the mountains, the beaches, there is the wine, the food, etc. etc. This is all true and Georgia does indeed have all this. But certainly this would not be sufficient to make me come back every year, and bring students, who after all need to learn and need to broaden their horizons, and deepen their understanding of the world, in other words, I expect much more of them than what I would expect from a regular tourist.

What we have found is that there are other treasures Georgia has to offer to the world. In fact, I would even say that there are things that people all over the world can learn from Georgians. Let me give you the most prominent example, which is the Georgian feast, the supra. On the surface, a supra is similar to what other cultures have too: people get together in order to eat and drink and talk, which is certainly a universal phenomenon. Also, the 'toast' which is a core-feature of the Georgian supra has its equivalent in other cultures, where people say "cheers" or something to that effect before they take a drink. But if you look deeper, you find significant differences: so, for example the Georgian toast is a true artform: Toasts are often poetic, they contain philosophical musings, and, most importantly, they reflect on the people present, their relationship to each other and to the larger community (local, national, global). Most importantly, which is my experience the most amazing fact, the focus in this context is always on the positive, on what can be appreciated, even during times of crisis and need.

In this sense, the Georgian supra can be interpreted as the creation of an "appreciative space," and many Georgians are true masters of the art of creating such a space: the best supras can reach an almost spiritual dimension, where people speak from their hearts, where true and lasting connections are forged, and where genuine psychological transformation can occur. I have been very fortunate to experience this many times in Georgia , and so have my students, and for some of them more or less significant life changes have occurred. I can give you the example of a student who even said she had never been able to believe in God, but her experience in Georgia opened her up spiritually to a degree that she now considers such a belief possible for herself. Another exquisite learning experience has been to have the American students say toasts at a supra themselves - in English, of course. Not only is this an excellent exercise in public speaking, but it turned out, that some of them, after observing Georgians giving toasts, were able to do it so well that their Georgian peers were truly touched.

I am convinced that this particular experience is only possible in Georgia , and in a sense, this can be considered one of the unique gifts Georgia has to offer to the world.

This has been my experience in Georgia and because of this experience, I am very glad to help in promoting Georgia 's image in the world. I will continue to bring American students to your country, and my colleagues and I are launching an innovative program called "the Georgian contribution to Global culture, which will focus precisely on what I have been talking about here. I believe that it is absolutely imperative for the rest of the world to learn about these unique gifts Georgia has to offer.

In closing I would like to say one more thing about how these observations are connected to the topic of peace and peacemaking. I can say that for myself as well as my students the question of "How can we achieve lasting peace on this planet?" is the most important, most burning question, and perhaps the most important reason why they are studying international relations is exactly this question. I firmly believe that one very important element, a crucial element, to achieving peace is the insight that every nation, every cultural group on this planet has something special to offer to the global culture. Metaphorically, we can think of a bouquet of flowers as a symbol of globalization: what if every nation, every culture adds their most beautiful flowers to this bouquet? This I believe is an important task in the process of peacemaking- to enable every culture to find out what their most beautiful flowers are, and to help them add it to the common bouquet, the bouquet of globalization.

My students and I have found such wonderful flowers in Georgia , and we are truly grateful for this. Sakartvelos Gaumarjos!