On Friday, August 8, the longstanding tensions between Georgia and Russia over the separatist region of South Ossetia escalated dramatically. Reports indicate that late last week, Georgia’s staunchly pro-Western government launched an offensive to reclaim the territory, shelling secessionist militias and sending forces into the city of Tskhinvali. Russia, which maintains a peacekeeping detachment in South Ossetia, responded in short order with what President Bush has called “disproportionate” force, striking civilian and military targets deep within Georgia and deploying a naval flotilla off the country’s Black Sea coast. Following three days of intense hostilities and repeated appeals for Western intervention, Georgia took steps to deescalate the conflict, calling for a cease-fire and withdrawing its troops from South Ossetia. Although Russia declared an end to its military operations on August 12, Russian troops remain deployed on Georgia territory and a resolution has yet to be achieved.
Praised by American policymakers as a bastion of democracy, Georgia has proven to be an enthusiastic ally of the United States in recent years, deploying a brigade to Diyala province in Iraq, lobbying for NATO membership, and seeking increased European integration. How, then, will the United States and its European allies respond to the current conflict? What are the implications of the war for other aspiring pro-Western governments? What does Russia’s conduct in the conflict tell us about Moscow’s longer-term domestic and foreign policy objectives? At an AEI event on Wednesday, August 13, AEI resident scholars Leon Aron and Frederick W. Kagan will provide an initial analysis of the conflict, with commentary from retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters and from Lt. Col. Bob Hamilton, an Army foreign area officer and fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who recently returned from a two-year tour as chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation in Tbilisi, Georgia. AEI’s Thomas Donnelly will moderate the discussion.
