Author: Nino Gozalishvili
The fragmentation of the liberal international order, the rise of transactional diplomacy, and the erosion of multilateral frameworks have created new structural conditions within which smaller states navigate. This article examines how the undergoing transformations in the global order have reshaped the politics of peace across the South Caucasus and in parts of Central and Eastern Europe. The article situates the analysis within scholarly debates on liberal, illiberal, and post-liberal peace. The central argument is that as the global order fragments, peace ceases to function as a shared normative horizon and becomes instead a contested political resource whose meaning is shaped by perceived structural position within the international system. The article foregrounds two interconnected processes through which smaller states navigate this shift: structural asymmetry normalization, whereby accommodation to power asymmetry is recast as a legitimate political identity of pragmatic realism; and identity reconfiguration, whereby the external reference points through which these states anchor their domestic legitimacy are reordered. Read against a broader context of normative change and the transnational circulation of political repertoires, these processes show that the politics of peace in a fragmenting order is not only a domestic matter but the (discursive) terrain within which smaller states negotiate their place within a transforming international system.