In Georgia, as across the rest of eastern Europe, the rights of sexual minorities have become bound up with the geopolitical contest between the European Union and Russia.
The predictable part is that Chomsky is an inveterate taker of sides in any geopolitical contest, particularly if it involves compromising a US strategic ally.
This time the teams will attend, but their leaders, including President Barack Obama, will stay away.The picture has already been overshadowed by violent clashes in Ukraine, the result of a bitter geopolitical contest between Russia and the EU.
In Ukraine the power of a similar offer precipitated a civil war and geopolitical contest with Russia; in the Holy Land, though, the promise of "special privileged partnerships" was barely noticed.
Behind all this intra-Muslim animosity, many will argue, is the ongoing geopolitical contest between Saudi Arabia and Iran, respectively guardians of Sunni and Shia orthodoxy, and rivals for control of the Gulf.
Only in Thailand, which he also visits, will Mr Obama court less controversy.Trumping the concerns, however, is America's "pivot" towards Asia and the geopolitical contest for friends and influence in the face of a rising China.
It may turn out that the encounter with the US Poseidon surveillance aircraft recorded by CNN was more than passingly revealing about China's ambitions for its newly built islands, and about the geopolitical contest that will unfold around them.
Adding to the complexity of the situation, Myanmar, by the nature of its location between India and China, is now the focus of a geopolitical contest for influence by the region's big powers increasingly hungry for natural resources.
Nonetheless, we are starting to see the broad parameters of an epochal geopolitical contest likely to shape the world's destiny in the coming decades of this still young twenty-first century.
In this version of history, Europe is divided between two rival technological cultures, a Mac-versus-PC contest on a geopolitical scale.
In a few recent contests the advisers have mirrored geopolitical splits, with pro-Russian candidates seeking strategists in Moscow and those more friendly to the West flying in Americans.For globetrotting spin doctors, breaking into a new market can be tough.
