Russia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus after the Georgia Conflict

Abstract

The Russo-Georgian conflict of August 2008 was the first time since the collapse of communism that Moscow had employed military force outside its borders. The brief, lopsided war had a major impact on Western Europe and the United States, leading to a temporary severing of NATO-Russian ties, and widespread condemnation of Russian aggression in the United States. The impact of the conflict on Russia’s key neighbors — the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus — was measurably greater, since these states constitute a region critical to Moscow’s foreign and security policy and are to varying degrees politically and economically dependent on Moscow. The region commands great power interest because of its large oil and gas reserves and the complicated transit routes for delivering these vital commodities. The predominance of weak authoritarian regimes and unresolved territorial conflicts add instability to this volatile mix.

The author would like to thank Ingmar Oldberg and Anar Valiyev for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.