Caucasus Conflict Breaks Old Rules of the Game

In August 2008, the years-long Georgian-Ossetian conflict reached a new climax in the five-day war. This outbreak of fighting was the third armed conflict between Georgia and the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia (de jure a part of the Georgian state) during the last 17 years. The sides fought for the first time in 1991-2 and again in August 2004. However, the military battle of August 2008 qualitatively different from the two previous ones because the Russian military participated directly in it. In contrast to the actions of separate Russian soldiers and units during the Georgian-Abkhaz war of 1992-3, the Kremlin not only supported what was happening on the ground, but named the exercise Forcing Georgia to Peace, in an effort to save the Ossetian people from a large-scale humanitarian catastrophe. In contrast to the previous Georgian-Ossetian battles, this time in the conflict between Tbilisi and Tskhinvali (and also between Moscow and Tbilisi), the West was actively involved. The states of the Commonwealth of Independent States also were more active than they had been in the 1990s. This activity focused in particular around Ukraine and the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which is based in Crimea and participated in the conflict. For the first time in 17 years, Tbilisi fought with separatist regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, on two fronts. In August 2008, the events in and around South Ossetia were the main questions on the international agenda. Most prominently, during the firstdays of the conflict, the UN Security Council met to discuss the situation in the Caucasus three times.