Newswise — Russia's incursion into neighboring Georgia shows that post-Cold War alliances may be more complex than previously thought, and it leaves the United States in a difficult position, according to Douglas Woodwell, assistant professor of international relations at the University of Indianapolis.
U.S. foreign policy in the region was set on a worrisome path in March, Woodwell says. At the NATO summit in Bucharest, the Bush administration was the chief proponent of putting Georgia on the fast track to NATO membership.
"It went largely unnoticed in the United States at the time that our government was essentially proposing that the U.S. pledge itself through NATO to defend the small country 'by all means necessary,' despite Georgia's strategic isolation, outstanding separatist issues and tense relations with Russia," Woodwell says.
"The current situation reveals two things: how little the United States is able, or willing, to do in the region in the face of a determined show of force by Russia; and how such displays of friendship and support by the United States can lead smaller countries to unwisely poke the Russian bear, which is essentially what the Georgian government did."
The United States' chief concern at this point is to prevent further spread of the conflict outside the separatist regions in Georgia, Woodwell says.
"The most the U.S. can and should do at this point is attempt to calm the situation through open and direct calls for a halt to Russian advances, while working through backchannels to encourage Georgian authorities to accept a ceasefire that returns to the earlier status quo."
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