Irakli Alasania is a Georgian politician, chairman and founder of the liberal political party "Free Democrats." He served as minister of defence of Georgia from 2012 to 2014. Prior to joining the Cabinet, his political party 'Free Democrats', together with other political institutions established the Georgian Dream Coalition and swept 2012 Parliamentary elections in Georgia. Mr. Alasania forged a liberal political movement in late 2008, after he resigned as Georgia's ambassador to the United Nations. His protest was triggered by the circumstances surrounding Russian aggression against Georgia over South Ossetia in August 2008. In his capacity as Georgian Government's key negotiator at the U.N., Mr. Alasania achieved remarkable success by putting conflicts in Georgia into the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly, followed by adoption of the first UN Resolution N 62/249, recognizing the right of all refugees and internally displaced persons and their descendants, regardless of ethnicity, to return to Abkhazia, Georgia. Prior his assignment at UN, he was Georgian president's special envoy for the Georgian-Abkhaz Peace Talks, which he successfully re-initiated in 2005. He effectively served in various governmental positions; in 2004, he was appointed as the first deputy minister of defence and deputy secretary of the National Security Council, and later named to be the head of the Abkhazian Government-in-Exile. Prior, he joined the Ministry of State Security, rising in the rank of the first deputy minister, where he focused first on planning, coordinating and implementing anti-terror operations from 2002 to 2003 and led the successful effort to clear the Pankisi Gorge of foreign militants. He holds a B.A. in international law from Tbilisi State University and is a graduate of Georgian Academy of Security.