Rector of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU); Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business; Chief Research Fellow at the Paata Gugushvili Institute of Economics. In 1994-2000 served as Minister of Economy of Georgia; in 2004-2008 Member of Parliament; in 2005-2006 Fullbright Researcher at the Central Asia – Caucasus Institute, Nietzsche School of Johns Hopkins University (Washington, USA). Authored over 300 publications on economic development, macroeconomics, post-communist economics, geo-economics, as well as theoretical and applied issues of geopolitics. Professor Papava defended his Dissertation in 1982 at the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and PhD dissertation at Tbilisi State University (1989) and Leningrad State University (1990).