No two countries that both have a McDonald's have ever been at war wrote American political commentator and author Thomas L. Friedman in 1996. Since then, of course, there have been plenty of instances of countries with McDonald’s warring, including Russia and Georgia. Though, one should not take Friedman’s phrase too literally. Rather he implies that the spread of McDonald's is a part of a worldwide phenomenon of countries integrating with the global economy, which, in turn, makes wars less likely.

The topic of circular labor migration has recently received increased attention within the objective of reducing unemployment in Georgia. Circular migration Schemes (CMS) are widely recognized policy tools for reducing illegal migration and facilitating the return of migrants to their countries of origin. The Georgian government’s increased interest and efforts to develop circular migration deals with EU member states serve, on the one hand, the long-term objective of addressing the high levels of unemployment, and, on the other hand, to reduce illegal, and stimulate legal, migration.

On September 13th, over half of the staff and researchers of ISET and the ISET Policy Institute were invited to Gdansk for an annual meeting of the FREE Network, where they presented research papers and exchanged ideas with leading academics and policymakers.

The following blog article was conceived of within the deliberations of a project, together with UNFPA, related to the cost assessment of potential changes to the leave policies of working parents. Admittedly, like the majority of the population, I had no idea that men in Georgia have the opportunity to take leave intended for childcare. It is a fact that since 2011 the number of fathers who have taken “childcare” leave can be counted on just two hands (including the ISET Alumnus, Giorgi Balakhashvili).

On May 17, Norberto Pignatti, the head of the Energy and Environment Policy Research Center and professor at the International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University, was invited to discuss good and bad practices characterizing the Regulatory Impact Assessment exercises in its presentation “Conducting RIA in Georgia: an academic perspective”.