Cold War Revived?
The conflict between Georgia and Russia harkens back to an era that ended nearly twenty years ago. Academics, intellectuals, and journalists are employing Cold War paradigms and dynamics in their analysis of the interplay between the separatist Caucasian regions, the post-Communist state of Georgia, the emerging power of Russia and the traditional stronghold of the West.
Here, the PHP assembles essays, roundtables, news articles, editorial pieces and podcasts that refer to the Cold War frame, which many find applicable or on the contrary reject as a useful category for examining the growing geopolitical conflict.
Material from the Center for Security Studies' ISN, PHP partner
Articles from the Center for Security Studies' ISN Security Watch, PHP partner
The new map of Georgia: Moscow redraws the map of Georgia, recognising Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as the dust settles and it becomes clearer where power lies on Europe's borderlands (27 August 2008)
Letters from Georgia - Bloody Vengeance: In Tskhinvali, Ossetian paramilitaries tell a story of revenge as Russian flags fly from government buildings (25 August 2008)
Georgia: Prospects of a new Cold War: Article by Elizabeth Owen and Giorgi Lomsadze from Eurasia.net (14 August 2008)
Podcast - South Ossetia, more than a region: Lili DiPuppo on how the conflict in South Ossetia is turning into an East vs West battle (11 August 2008)
Other sources
Russia, Georgia and the EU: Victory for the Kremlin? Commentary by Edward Lucas criticizing Western response to the Russia-Georgia conflict (Daily Telegraph, 3 November 2008)
A second Cold War? Marwan Bishara moderates a live panel discussion on US-Russia relations (Al Jazeera, 31 October 2008)
The truth about South Ossetia: Seumas Milne on new evidence of Georgia's role in the conflict (Guardian, 31 October 2008)
Mandelson: No to new Cold War: While in Moscow with a British business delegation, the UK's secretary for business and enterprise gives an interview urging calm (Kommersant, 29 October 2008)
The Cold War that wasn't: Mark Ames on the role of journalists and specifically the New York Times in the hysteria surrounding the Russia-Georgia war (The Nation, 22 October 2008)
Vladimir Putin's deputy rules out attacks on Russia's neighbors: Sergei Ivanov states that Russia will recognize the territorial integrity of former Soviet republics (The Times, 19 October 2008)
Twenty years on, America must abandon its Cold War mentality: Russian president Dmitry Medvedev speaking at the World Policy Conference in Evian (The Independent, 9 October 2008)
Building on common ground: Commentary by former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger and George Schultz (Washington Post, 8 October 2008)
Georgia on my mind: Commentary by Sergey Rogov, director of the Institute for US and Canadian Studies (ISKRAN) at the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia Profile, 6 October 2008)
Russia-US relations - what next? Dimitry Trenin and Alexei Arbatov of the Carnegie Moscow Center on why the current conflict cannot be termed a new Cold War (Eurasian Home Analytical Resource, 6 October 2008)
Who's afraid of a new Cold War? Commentary from Paul du Quenoy, an historian at the American University in Cairo (Al Jazeera.net, 18 September 2008)
This is not a new Cold War: Egon Bahr, architect of the Ostverträge of the 1970s, finds it ridiculous to interprete the conflict in the Caucasus as a new Cold War (Interview with Swiss Radio DRS, 18 September 2008)
Georgia was not on their minds: Claude Salhani, editor of the Middle East Times, covering the International Insitute for Strategic Studies' annual Global Strategic Review (UPl, 17 September 2008)
Von Weizsäcker verteidigt Russlands Einmarsch: Former German president warns of impending "cold war" (Die Welt, 16 September 2008)
This is not a cold war: Opinion piece by Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek Intenrational editor (Guardian, 15 September 2008)
Ossetia-Russia-Georgia: Essay by Noam Chomsky, American linguist and political activist (chomsky.info, 9 September 2008)
Kalter Krieg? Davon sind wir noch weit entfernt: Austrian commentator Hugo Portisch on the crisis in the Caucasus (Kurier, 8 September 2008)
Who wants Cold War II? Commentary from Former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami (Project Syndicate, 4 September 2008)
Russia 'ready for new Cold War' over Georgia: Article by Adruab Blomfield and Damien McElroy (Daily Telegraph, 27 August 2008)
Georgia's recklessness pays off with NATO: Op-ed by Ulf Gartzke, director of the Hanns-Seidel-Foundation's Washington Office (Atlantic-Community.org, 27 August 2008)
Kaukasus-Konflikt: Seit Iwan dem Schrecklichen: Article by Jeronim Perović, historian at the University of Basel (Handelsblatt, 26 August 2008)
History's back: ambitious autocracies, hesitant democracies: Analysis by Robert Kagan looking at the effects the immediate post-Soviet era (The Weekly Standard, 25 August 2008)
To be free from America: Dimitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on why the Cold War analogy is incorrect (Newsweek, 23 August 2008)
Georgia-Russia conflict brings back Cold War memories: Feature by Rachel Rodriguez (CNN.com, 22 August 2008)
Solving the crisis in the Caucusus: Council on Foreign Relations roundtable with Dimitri Trenin, Rajan Menon, Ariel Cohen, Charles Kupchan, and Alan Mendoza (19 August 2008)
Kalter Krieg in Georgien? Article by Andreas Leixnering (Deutsche Welle, 19 August 2008)
Nato versus Russland: Den Kalten Krieg am Horizont: Article by Sebastian Huld (Stern.de, 19 August 2008)
Kremlin dusts off Cold War lexicon to make US villain in Georgia: Article by Charles Bremner (The Times, 15 August 2008):
Plucky little Georgia? No, the Cold War reading won't wash: Mark Almond, history lecturer at Oriel College, Oxford on why a Cold War reading is crudely simplistic (Guardian, 9 August 2008)
