Developments on the Georgia front

9 August 2008, 0005 EDT

The first official U.S. statement on the escalating conflict backs Georgia and calls for cease fire:

“We call on Russia to cease attacks on Georgia by aircraft and missiles, respect Georgia’s territorial integrity, and withdraw its ground combat forces from Georgian soil,” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement.

Rice issued her statement as Georgia, a former Soviet state that now wants to join NATO, said it would declare martial law and battled to get control of the rebel enclave, which was fortified by Russian forces.

Georgia said Russian fighter jets bombed container tankers and a shipbuilding plant in the port of Poti, prompting Washington’s sharpest rebuke of Russia since the crisis began.

“We deplore the Russian military action in Georgia, which is a violation of Georgian sovereignty and territorial integrity,” U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters at a U.N. Security Council meeting in New York.

Both Rice and the White House urged an immediate cease-fire in South Ossetia, and U.S. officials said they would send an envoy to the region to help mediate.

This swings the White House in line with McCain’s position, but, more importantly, it signals a public U.S. stance that favors Georgia’s understanding of the conflict: as Russian interference in an internal dispute.

In other developments, Tom Parfitt of the Guardian reports that hundreds of “coassacks” (volunteer fighters) are planning to cross into Georgia to support the South Osseitans. This appears to be a familiar case of co-ethnic mobilization, although I’m not really sure what significance, if any, to attribute to it.

For actual “blog journalism” (i.e., first-hand accounts), be sure to check out A Fistful of Euros (at least in a few hours — but Doug’s analysis, as usual, is top notch) and, via them, Wu Wei. Also, via Maria Farrell, a great post by Daragh McDowell, which points out that, whatever one makes of the strategic calculations of the antagonists: (1) the Russians deployed a significant force quite rapidly and (2) South Ossetia originated in an attempt by Russia to leverage Georgia–on that front, nothing much has changed.

Dan Nexon

Daniel H. Nexon is a Professor at Georgetown University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. His academic work focuses on international-relations theory, power politics, empires and hegemony, and international order. He has also written on the relationship between popular culture and world politics.

He has held fellowships at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Studies. During 2009-2010 he worked in the U.S. Department of Defense as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He was the lead editor of International Studies Quarterly from 2014-2018.

He is the author of The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton University Press, 2009), which won the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Best Book Award for 2010, and co-author of Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020). His articles have appeared in a lot of places. He is the founder of the The Duck of Minerva, and also blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money.