<p style="margin-bottom: 0.19in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: #ff6600;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><strong>« </strong></span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span lang="en-GB">In the middle of major  international crisis: Georgia as a bargain coin or a battlefield for new  cold war?”, in </span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span lang="en-GB"><em>Central Asia and Caucasus</em></span></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span lang="en-GB">, n°3 (57), 2009</span></span></span></span></span></p>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.49in; line-height: 150%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #ff6600; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Thornike GORDADZE</span></p>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.49in; line-height: 150%; text-align: left;"><em><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #999999; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Head of the Caucasian Laboratory at the  French Institute of Anatolian Studies, IFEA (Istanbul-Baku)</span></em></p>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.49in; line-height: 150%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /> <span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #999999;"> </span></span></p>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.49in; line-height: 150%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #999999; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">At the beginning of the 19<sup>th</sup> century Carl von Clausewitz wrote that war is a continuation of  political activity by other means. The Russian-Georgian war of 2008  fully corroborates this hypothesis. The hostilities, which lasted for  only a few days, were just one episode in the Russian-Georgian  confrontation that began long before August 2008 and still has a long  way to go. Nevertheless, this short war can be considered the most  important occurrence of the year in Georgia.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0.49in; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: #999999; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">All the more or less significant events in  Georgian foreign policy in 2008 are associated in some way with the war.  They can be divided into two categories: a) Events that promoted or  caused the war and b) events that occurred as a consequence. For  instance, recognition by most of the West of Kosovo’s independence,  cancellation of the Russian Federation’s sanctions against Georgia’s  separatist regions and their militarization, and NATO’s refusal to offer  Georgia the MAP at the Bucharest summit promoted the Russian-Georgian  war. Whereas the American-Georgian charter and approval of a  4.5-billion-dollar aid plan for Georgia at a conference of sponsors in  Brussels are consequences of the war.</span></p>
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