Beeman, an anthropologist specializing in the Middle East and Central Asia, is strongest at placing Georgia's current plight in a historical context with regard to both the Soviet Union and recent dealings with the U.S. and Israel. Below I've a link to another article in which he mentions the oil pipeline through Georgia. It's at his blog where he provides copies of other of his writings and where they were published. I would have liked to have known how recent and the extent of his in-country experience, as he is a U.S. academic now at U. Minnesota and previously at Brown. Thanks, Chris for submitting this. I was curious about your pointing out Beeman's opinion stated as fact that "Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia are among the most corrupt nations on earth." I turned to Global Integrity, co-founded by an investigative journalist and a political scientist, a non-profit which works with in-country journalists, researchers, and academics to qualitatively and quantitatively assess "anti-corruption mechanisms, openness, and government accountability." Georgia's overall rating is weak, having decreased from moderate in 2006, but of 53 countries, it is certainly by these measures nowhere in the bottom 3. See this http://report.globalintegrity.org/Georgia/2007 Using in-country sources yields a questionable comparison between countries. Interestingly, the 2007 in-country report receive a peer review, from three individuals. Below are observations from two of them: "The questions allow the reporter too much room for interpretation, causing personal biases to have a large impact on the scores. For instance, whereas last year's Georgia reporter appeared overly pro-government, this year's reporter has certainly not been very kind with the Saakashvili government (despite the obvious progress that has been made under the new president). And, "Georgian media and civil society are highly politicized and there is little chance for conducting independent and impartial investigations into corruption issues."