Foreword
On August 8, forces from the Republic of Georgia — a former Soviet state located in the far southeastern border of Europe and Asia — entered South Ossetia, a breakaway province within Georgia’s internationally recognized borders. The military incursion triggered a full-scale war between Russian and Georgian forces, leaving hundreds dead and causing an international crisis that produced sharp verbal sparring between major international powers on the United Nations Security Council. TheGeorgian action was the culmination of months of increasingly heightenedtensions between Russian and Georgian ethnic groups within the contested region— which had previously erupted in warfare in 1991…
