Last week’s declared state of emergency in Georgia came as a shock. The Rose Revolution’s democratic experiment in this small but strategically vital country seemed to dissolve in clouds of tear gas. Peaceful demonstrations escalated into violence and calls for the overthrow of the government. After the police tried and failed to clear Tbilisi’s main boulevard, a state of emergency was declared, including closing an anti-government TV station that had broadcast calls for the government’s overthrow. By coincidence, I arrived in Tbilisi shortly after the state of emergency was declared. Like many westerners, I asked if Misha Saakashvili, Georgia’s charismatic president, had gone bad. How could the leaders of the Rose Revolution put their country in the same corner as Pakistan and Burma?

I spent the next few days with government leaders, the opposition and civil society trying to answer that question. The decision to enact the state of emergency was not taken lightly. It was debated fiercely and decided collectively in the cabinet, including by many whose democratic credentials can hardly be questioned. Having spoken to Georgians involved in that decision, very few of them regret it. They believed their fragile democracy was at risk. Many consider it a significant accomplishment that the state finally showed it could defend itself. As westerners living in comfortable societies, we have trouble understanding the insecurity of a country that has teetered on being a failed state. The decision may still have been wrong, but we should see the motives behind it.