Events Detail

Another Look at the August War

Mr. MALKHAZ MIKELADZE

Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Georgia in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico

Dr. SVANTE CORNELL

Research Director, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute

Dr. ANDREI ILLARIONOV

Senior Fellow, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute

President, Institute of Economic Analysis, Moscow

Hosted by:

ZEYNO BARAN

Senior Fellow and Director of Center for Eurasian Policy

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

      Illarionav, Cornell, and Mikeladze

                Baran and Illarionov

Four months after the war in Georgia, many questions still remain unanswered. The answer to "who started the war" depends on a large degree on whether one considers the "war" to have begun on August 6-8, or instead views it as part of a much longer period of heightened conflict from 2004 up until August 7. Given Russia's continuing occupation of undisputed Georgian territory, as well as its unilateral recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as "independent states," questions about the tactics used in early August have become less important than the broader intentions of the Kremlin.

The conclusions that analysts, opinion shapers, and policy makers reach on Russian actions in Georgia have a significant impact on US-Russia and Europe-Russia relations, as well as the policies that the Obama administration will develop in the vast space the Kremlin considers to be its "sphere of influence." Some argue that Russia can be compared to "Germany in the 1930s" in its approach to neighboring countries, whereas others argue this was a "one-off" event unlikely to be repeated. Yet even if the invasion of Georgia was sui generis,it still raises serious questions about how a belligerent Russia affects security in Europe's East.

For some time the Russian official rhetoric has portrayed the US as "the enemy". It may be that the Putin-Medvedev administration is moving in a "zero sum" direction instead of looking to achieve the "win-win" outcome favored in Washington. If this is the case, to what degree can the US cooperate with Russia on Iran and Afghanistan—and at what price? And what should the US do to promote and defend its strategic interests across Europe and Eurasia when they conflict with Russian interests?

To discuss these timely and complex issues, we were joined by:

• Malkhaz Mikaladze, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Georgia;

• Dr. Svante Cornell, Research Director and Assistant Research Professor, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Associate Professor, Uppsala University, Sweden;

• Dr. Andrei Illarionov, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, and President of the Institute of Economic Analysis, an independent economic think tank in Moscow. Until December 27, 2005, he was an economic advisor to then-President Vladimir Putin.

This on the record meeting took place at Hudson Institute, located at 1015 15th St, NW, 6th Floor, Washington, DC. For more information and, please contact Onur Sazak at onur@hudson.org  or call (202) 974 6445.