POLI 244: Why Did Russia Invade Georgia?

Response Paper 1
POLI 244 Why did Russia invade Georgia?

In August 2008, Russia and Georgia went to a brief war over the control of South Ossetia. It was Russia’s first war against another state since the collapse of the Soviet regime. Russia and Georgia have a history of conflict. During the breakup of the Soviet Union, the question of control over the region of South Ossetia was never resolved to all parties’ satisfaction. The South Ossetians were part of a different ethnic group than the Georgians, so they did not want to be part of the same country. This led to a similar war in 1991, which resulted in an uneasy peace in the region. From this peace treaty, South Ossetia and Abkhazia each became semiautonomous republics that still remained
USA as a great hegemonic power poses underlying threats to Russia due to Russia’s great desire to gain power and re-establish the once hegemon status it had as Soviet Union. NATO’s advancement throughout Eastern Europe made the Russian Government question why would the West bridge on Russia’s “space of privileged interest”, if only for the US’s personal benefit at the expense of Russia’s security. Obviously to Russia feared that if Georgia would gain more power with the help of the Western states, USA would become stronger in the East, which will undermine Russia’s role as a great power of that