%0 Journal Article
%T Spoils of a War: Impact of Georgia-Russia War on Russian Foreign and Security Policies in the ¡®Near Abroad¡¯
%A G¨¹ner £¿zkan
%J Journal of Gazi Academic View
%D 2012
%I Gazi University
%X Prior to the war in Georgia in August 2008, Russia¡¯s efforts to maintain and strengthen its influence in the ¡®near abroad¡¯ had been challenged by its competitors. Hence, the war in Georgia over South Ossetia came just in a right moment for Russian leadership to strongly reassert the presence of Russia¡¯s exclusive interests in the ¡®near abroad¡¯. In this study, the war in Georgia is treated as an event not being a total game-changer but an event capable of having important geopolitical implications in the ¡®near abroad¡¯. Thus, the article argues that Russia¡¯s reaction to Georgia aimed to carry out what it had already been doing politically and economically, now in a heightened alert with multifarious tools to enhance Russian national interests in the ¡®near abroad¡¯. Despite harsh criticism and some measures taken particularly by the US and the EU, Russia has largely succeeded in taking the ¡®near abroad¡¯ back into its influence. Russia has been doing this through a number of methods showing the very bases of Russia¡¯s pre-Georgian war realism. After identifying Russian conception of ¡®near abroad¡¯ before the War, the study will delve into four policy areas through which Russia¡¯s geopolitical re-claim in the same region is thought to be best identified: Russia curbing the US and the EU, Collective Security Treaty Organization for deepening security space, Shanghai Cooperation Organization for widening security space and energy pipelines for making Russia ¡®great¡¯ again.
%K Russia
%K Near Abroad
%K War in Georgia
%K Foreign Policy
%K Security
%U http://ataum.gazi.edu.tr/posts/download?id=46384