Dear Friends,
One last thing about the Russia Georgian conflict, then I’ll shut up about it… Maybe.
Russia has, since it’s breakup, Made a hard distinction about the territorial sovereignty of nations. Russia used this as justification to bypass UN sponsored arms embargos against the former Yugoslavia. Russia armed the Serbian Republic against Bosnia. It also used it’s own territorial integrity as justification for the war in Chechnya. Russia has been unwilling to sanction nations that violently put down rebellions, because of this reasoned stance.
Now Russia goes against this argument in it’s treatment of Georgia. Russia says that Georgia does not have the same rights to maintain Georgia’s territorial integrity as did Yugoslavia, Russia, or any of the other nations Russia refused to sanction from the UN security council. Why?
There is a French maxim that it is better to blunder than to make an error. Where a politician blunders in a campaign, he is only accountable to himself. But when he errs in his job he has the whole Nation to account to. In other words, A politician works for the benefit of his nation and thus the nations interests hinge on his judgment. But when he is seeking office his judgment affects only himself, (and possibly some close allies). Russia sees the encroachment of NATO into it’s former sphere of influence as a very real threat. They, (as I have discussed formerly) have every right to be paranoid. The US and it’s allies may or may not be a threat to Russia, and is almost certainly not. But a miscalculation that puts Russia at war on it’s own territory is completely unacceptable. The deeply bruised Russian psyche requires a buffer.
So here we are, Russia is still going against it’s past stance. I have alluded to the answer, it is politics. Russia‘s, and every other country in the world, own interests must be paramount. In doing so it puts the interests of it’s people as paramount. Whether this is actually true or not in practice all national governments hold this to be true, whether consciously or unconsciously.
Russia must do something to stem the advance of NATO. It’s people see this as a threat. National governments are primarily there to protect the people from invasion. Being pragmatic Russia has decided that this profound tension between it’s present and former stance on the territorial integrity of nations is necessary. Machiavelli said that in the affairs of nations where there is recourse from the sovereign, the end justifies the means. In this case the end is to stop the advance of NATO and the means is to take the side of the rebellion over the nation. Thus terrifying the other potential joiners of NATO, (who have the same imperative).
This is a case of power politics trumping international legalism, as well as trumping rationalism. When a nation is ruled by fear, rationalism takes a back seat to emotion and international legal norms are irrelevant.
The politician must keep in mind, however, that in this chaotic world in which we live, there is a thing called the ‘Butter Fly Affect’. If a small action such as the fluttering of a butterflies wings can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world, how much more unknown, and profound, are the implications of actions of power politics ?
