A failure of strategy

Abstract

The outbreak of war in Georgia has left no outright victors. While Moscow could claim to have won the military battle, it remains isolated on the world stage in its formal recognition of the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states. The South Ossetians have taken a step towards eventual reunification with North Ossetia, but Abkhazia may find itself more closely tied to Russia than it had been hoping. Georgia is certainly worse off after the brief conflict, as is its would-be patron, the United States.