Russia’s Invasion of Georgia Tests NATO

Posted October 10th, 2008 at 8.15pm in American Leadership.

TBILISI — What should NATO do about Georgia? This question must inevitably lead to the question of what NATO should do about Russia? Since Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion of Georgia on Aug. 7, the West has failed to find an adequate answer to either question. Although Russian troops have this week left Georgia proper, they remain deeply entrenched in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, including “new” areas such as Abkhazia’s Kodori Gorge and the South Ossetian town of Akhalgori where they weren’t present before Aug. 7

The Baltic States remain deeply concerned that Moscow’s actions are just a precursor to further aggressive action, as Russia seeks to regain its previous influence in former Soviet territories. NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. John Craddock said today that NATO must, “reexamine its assumptions about the safety of member states and could require new contingency planning.” But as things stand, the West remains divided over confronting Russian aggression, with Germany in particular pressing the EU and NATO for a softly-softly approach to Russia.

Currently, unarmed EU and OSCE observers are placed in Georgia-proper to monitor the Russian withdrawal. The EU, UN and OSCE will co-host the first stage of international talks in Geneva on Wednesday between Russia and Georgia (and South Ossetia and Abkhazia) about issues of security and stability. Significantly, Russia has already said it will not revisit the question of South Ossetia’s and Abkhazia’s independence, and that it will keep 3,800 troops in each of the breakaway regions. The international community’s limited response to this crisis has not been sufficient and there is little chance that the Geneva talks will yield anything of substance.

By invading Georgia, a NATO Partnership for Peace member, Russia provoked a de facto confrontation with the West. It blatantly sought to test the West’s resolve to respond to Moscow’s redrawing of Europe’s border by force and Europe was found seriously wanting.

Author: Sally McNamara
Interact: Sphere
Share This

4 Comments

October 11, 2008 John writes:

The world was tested by Russia, they know they can get away with it. The Us cannot take on another country, they know this and are taking advantage of it. China and Russia have signed treaties in the past, wait and see what will happen. A war of wars.

October 11, 2008 Seraphiel writes:

I wouldn’t call russia’s invasion of Georgia illegal. Now the whole world knows and Rice and Sarkozy admit that it was Georgia starting the aggression on South Ossetia. Though Georgia has the right to do what it wants in what it thinks is its own territory. Executing a genocide attempt on a minority culture that you have terrorized for years is not something any ‘democratic’ country should come away with. Though the whole world seems to ignore the fact that there are two minority cultures living in Georgia that didn’t want to separate from Russia in the 1990’s, because they feared the ethnic nationalistic Georgian government. Russia accepted these cultures for being who they are and protected these cultures now on a second occasion. Why the UN doesn’t recognize South Ossetians and Abkhaz people is a riddle to me. Because with only 650 000 Ossetians living world wide, they might have put them on the list of endangered species as well.

In contradiction to western europe who didn’t give a damn about the people in kosovo and only acts when already millions of people have been killed. Russia stepped in to prevent further genocide of Ossetians, making it even difficult to prove later on that it was a genocide attempt. I guess we all have to thank Russia for acting quick and acknowledging South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent nations. Something the world should have done in 1992 already. Stalin gave South Ossetia and Abkhazia to Georgia. Before that both Abkhazia and Ossetia had their own government. But the world seems to forget that. Russia should stay in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia at least until Saakashvili gets of his throne.

October 11, 2008 Will, New York writes:

I highly doubt we have moral concern for Georgia. We are doing what great powers have always done, which is try to make life difficult for the competing superpower in their own backyard. Russia has done it to us and we are doing it to them.

This isn’t to say that there isn’t a moral issue at stake. The moral issue for us as Americans is, do our policies encourage negative behavior from the Russians? If yes, then we have a moral obligation to change our behavior towards them. Missile Defense Shield, provocations against Iran, nuclear deals with india, setting our defenses on hair trigger alert, discarding the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and many others have heightened tensions and given an excuse for remilitarization.

October 14, 2008 Charles Tchkotoua writes:

Georgia must join NATO as soon as possible .
Any uncertainly of Georgia not joining will make Russia more aggressive towards it`s neighbor.

The Heritage Foundation - Leadership for America

The Foundry