The Breakup of Georgia: Fragmentation or Settlement Fringe?

This article analyzes the status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as a result of the August war of 2008 between Russia and Georgia. We hypothesize that a new form of political entity is being shaped. This political creation is a laboratory of human and political geography. It remains a borderland, but which is neither prohibitive nor permissive; it is a "settlement fringe," qualified by integration or abandonment. The first part of this paper discusses "settlement fringes" to extract its defining features in the 21-super-st century. In the second part, we discuss the perceptions, intentions and policies of the central actors towards their periphery, because the role of the State and of its political elite is central in the creation of a settlement fringe. This role tends to establish influence through the creation of supporting infrastructure, so investment in peripheral regions by Russia and Georgia is a critical indicator. The third section will focus on the situation on the ground in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Cooperative practice between the unilaterally-declared independent republics and Georgia, despite continuing tension between the latter and Russia, is taken as an indicator that the Caucasus is shaping up to be a borderland which is neither prohibitive nor permissive, neither integrated nor completely subjected to the pull of Russia, and this, in spite of Europe's relative disinterest.