IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/thesis/v8g7t.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Hostility, Chance, and Reason: Clausewitz and Russian Foreign Policy in the 2008 Russo-Georgian War

Author

Listed:
  • Jones, Bryan Thomas

Abstract

In 2008, the world stood in shock as Russian troops crossed over into the Republic of Georgia and seemingly annexed the sovereign lands of another nation. This five-day war directly resulted in varying levels of success and the achievement of political and military objectives for the Russian Federation. Several studies and analyses have sought to explain the actions of the Russian military and its leaders in an attempt to discern the primary influences on its current foreign policy and military strategy. However, these studies have devoted little attention towards arguably the most renowned and influential of all military theorists – Carl von Clausewitz. His tenets of philosophical and strategic thought, paired with his development of critical analysis towards the study of war, offer a remarkably relevant lens from which to view the 2008 war and more recent conflicts involving the Russian military. By utilizing Clausewitz’s own methodology of critical analysis in connection with an empirical case study on one of Russia’s recent military actions, this paper will attempt to establish an understanding of Russian foreign policy and military strategy. The research and analysis presented reveals that, contrary to modern arguments, the writings and principles of Carl von Clausewitz are anything but obsolete; when applied to the Russo-Georgian War, various principles of Clausewitzian thought aid in characterizing and explaining the actions and decisions of the armed forces and government of the Russian Federation.

Suggested Citation

  • Jones, Bryan Thomas, 2018. "Hostility, Chance, and Reason: Clausewitz and Russian Foreign Policy in the 2008 Russo-Georgian War," Thesis Commons v8g7t, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:thesis:v8g7t
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/v8g7t
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/5af89a4bda163200131f7653/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/v8g7t?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Doyle, Michael W., 1986. "Liberalism and World Politics," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 80(4), pages 1151-1169, December.
    2. Legro, Jeffrey W., 1996. "Culture and Preferences in the International Cooperation Two-Step," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 90(1), pages 118-137, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. T. Clifton Morgan & Sally Howard Campbell, 1991. "Domestic Structure, Decisional Constraints, and War," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 35(2), pages 187-211, June.
    2. Beth A. Simmons, 2002. "Capacity, Commitment, and Compliance," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 46(6), pages 829-856, December.
    3. James Lee Ray, 2005. "Constructing Multivariate Analyses (of Dangerous Dyads)," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 22(4), pages 277-292, September.
    4. Matthew O. Jackson & Massimo Morelli, 2007. "Political Bias and War," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(4), pages 1353-1373, September.
      • Jackson, Matthew O. & Morelli, Massimo, "undated". "Political bias and war," Working Papers 1247, California Institute of Technology, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
    5. Wockenfuß, Christof, 2009. "Demokratie durch Entwicklungskonkurrenz," Discussion Papers 2009-17, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Chair of Economic Ethics.
    6. Lingyu Lu & Cameron G. Thies, 2010. "Trade Interdependence and the Issues at Stake in the Onset of Militarized Conflict," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 27(4), pages 347-368, September.
    7. Idean Salehyan, 2010. "The Delegation of War to Rebel Organizations," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 54(3), pages 493-515, June.
    8. David Brulé, 2006. "Congressional Opposition, the Economy, and U.S. Dispute Initiation, 1946-2000," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 50(4), pages 463-483, August.
    9. David Carment & Patrick James, 1995. "Internal Constraints and Interstate Ethnic Conflict," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 39(1), pages 82-109, March.
    10. Sally Anderson & Mark Souva, 2010. "The Accountability Effects of Political Institutions and Capitalism on Interstate Conflict," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 54(4), pages 543-565, August.
    11. Terrence L. Chapman, 2007. "International Security Institutions, Domestic Politics, and Institutional Legitimacy," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 51(1), pages 134-166, February.
    12. Kenneth Benoit, 1996. "Democracies Really Are More Pacific (in General)," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 40(4), pages 636-657, December.
    13. Russell J. Leng, 1993. "Reciprocating Influence Strategies in Interstate Crisis Bargaining," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 37(1), pages 3-41, March.
    14. Destradi, Sandra, 2010. "A Regional Power Promoting Democracy? India's Involvement in Nepal (2005-2008)," GIGA Working Papers 138, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    15. Michael W. Simon & Erik Gartzke, 1996. "Political System Similarity And The Choice of Allies," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 40(4), pages 617-635, December.
    16. Jennifer Brauner, 2015. "Military spending and democracy," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 409-423, August.
    17. Akos Lada, 2013. "Clash of Brothers in a Contagious World: Wars to Avoid Diffusion," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 1333, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    18. David H. Bearce & Eric O'N. Fisher, 2002. "Economic Geography, Trade, and War," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 46(3), pages 365-393, June.
    19. Alexander H. Montgomery & Scott D. Sagan, 2009. "The Perils of Predicting Proliferation," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 53(2), pages 302-328, April.
    20. Jacques Fontanel, 2003. "The dangerous relations between national economies and war," Post-Print hal-02984534, HAL.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:thesis:v8g7t. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://thesiscommons.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.