The August 2008 war between Russia and Georgia has altered our perception of European security. For the first time since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia used massive military force outside its borders. According to a broadly accepted interpretation of events, Russia wanted to influence discussions within the NATO alliance on a Membership Action Plan (MAP) for Georgia and Ukraine. Russia’s “disproportional” response to Georgia’s use of force against South Ossetia demonstrated that the full integration of Tbilisi into the Atlantic alliance would carry a number of serious costs. Another reading of events, which focuses more on intra-state conflicts in Georgia and various parties’ use of confrontation policies, has received less attention.

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