The Guns of August 2008: Russia's War in Georgia

In the summer of 2008 an unprecedented event occurred. For the first time since 1979 the Russian military crossed national borders to attack a sovereign state. This attack followed a period of intensive and mainly negative developments in Russia’s relations with Georgia and, more significantly, in Russia’s relations with the West. What appeared to have begun in the breakaway Georgian territory of South Ossetia rapidly escalated to the most significant crisis in European security in a decade.

This war took the world by surprise. Yet over the preceding months those closely watching events in the Caucasus had been calling attention to the escalating conflict in the region. Steps taken by the Russian leadership following the Western recognition of Kosovo’s independence in February 2008, and the NATO Bucharest Summit in April brought the situation in the Caucasus to an entirely new level. In spite of a mass of readily available information on the Russian arms buildup, however, Western governments were caught off guard when simmering tensions in the Georgian conflict zones exploded into full-scale war.