The Honorable Mikheil Saakashvili, President of Georgia, delivered a public lecture on Thursday, May 17, 2012, at 4:30 p.m., in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall, on the Princeton University campus. The talk, titled "Georgian Democratic Transformation: A Test Case for the Post-Soviet World," was cosponsored by the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination and the Woodrow Wilson School.

In 1995 Saakashvili was elected to the Georgian Parliament initiating Georgia's first merit-based selection of judges. On October 12, 2000, he was appointed minister of justice of Georgia, where he addressed prison reform and investigated post-Soviet Georgian corruption at the highest governmental levels. His drastic judicial reforms were praised by the president of the World Bank.

In 2003, Saakashvili and the late Member of Parliament Zurab Zhvania united to reject falsified election results and called on the public to protest, thus launching the "Rose Revolution." On January 4, 2004, the people of Georgia elected Mikheil Saakashvili as president with 96 percent of the vote - making Saakashvili (37) the youngest president in Europe. He was re-elected in January 2008.

On President Saakashvili's initiative, Georgia has contributed substantially, on a per capita basis, to the U.S.-led coalition of forces in Afghanistan.

Co-Sponsored with the Woodrow Wilson School.

A webcast of this lecture is available on LISD's YouTube channel.