Tinatin Aghniashvili, the eleventh and final alumni scholar of the 2025 program, who presented her research at the Marshall Center on Sept. 24, 2025, following the completion of her five-week research residency.

Focusing on “Societal Resilience: The New Frontline of Modern Deterrence,” Aghniashvili explored how resilience reshapes traditional deterrence and how it can be integrated into modern security strategies.

She highlighted NATO’s 7 baseline requirements for resilience and shared a snapshot of the EU’s resilience dashboard. Comparing whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches to national security, she emphasized that the whole-of-society model is decentralized, dynamic, and adaptable.

Her conclusion: Society itself is a powerful deterrent. Strengthening resilience at the national level and promoting cross-societal resilience across Europe will reinforce the EU’s collective deterrence and defense posture.

Aghniashvili, the 120th Alumni Scholar since the program’s inception in 2004 and the eleventh overall scholar from Georgia, is both an academic and a security practitioner as well as a graduate of the Program on Applied Security Studies. She is a guest lecturer who teaches courses in both English and Georgian at four universities in Georgia, spanning both state and private institutions.