Ignore Abkhazia at your own risk
Georgetown’s Daniel Nexon characterizes Jaap de Hoop Scheffer’s admonition of Russia’s interventions in Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia provice as NATO writing "checks it probably can’t cash." This prompted Matthew Yglesias to write: It would be appallingly stupid for the United States or our other key allies to put anything whatsoever on the line for the sake ...
Georgetown's Daniel Nexon characterizes Jaap de Hoop Scheffer's admonition of Russia's interventions in Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia provice as NATO writing "checks it probably can't cash." This prompted Matthew Yglesias to write:
Georgetown’s Daniel Nexon characterizes Jaap de Hoop Scheffer’s admonition of Russia’s interventions in Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia provice as NATO writing "checks it probably can’t cash." This prompted Matthew Yglesias to write:
It would be appallingly stupid for the United States or our other key allies to put anything whatsoever on the line for the sake of Georgia’s efforts to reassert control over its rebellious province. The question of maintaining a good relationship with an important country, Russia, versus standing up for the independence of Russia’s neighbors poses some tough dilemmas. But when the issue is Georgia’s effort to rule over a province that by all indications doesn’t want to be ruled by Tblisi, the dilemma really isn’t difficult at all. We should just stay far, far, far away from this dispute and try to make it clear to our friends in Georgia that we don’t encourage them to do anything stupid.
I think it’s wishful thinking on Yglesias’s part to pretend that this has nothing to do with U.S. foreign policy. Abkhazia isn’t just some obscure, post-Soviet backwater conflict that emerged on its own. Russia’s recent actions — normalizing trade relations and sending hundreds of "peacekeepers" into the region — were taken in direct response to Western recognition of Kosovo and talk of NATO expansion. Telling Georgia that it has to resolve this issue on its own before we’ll even think about NATO membership is basically an open invitiation for Putin to continue meddling.
I agree that tradeoffs and concessions will have to be made with an increasingly assertive Russia, and Georgia’s territorial integrity may be less of a priority than other goals. But being willing to make concessions is not the same thing as looking the other way when Russia responds to U.S. and EU policy by annexing territory from Western allies. I don’t really see why de Hoop Scheffer saying that Georgia and Russia "should engage quickly in a high-level and open dialogue to de-escalate tensions" is some sort of bombastic provocation.
For the record, the Georgians have put quite a bit on the line to help the United States reassert control in Iraq with the hope that they might gain NATO membership in return. That gambit is starting to look "appallingly stupid."
Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating
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