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UW hosts Russia, Georgia forum

The conflict between Russia and Georgia was a hot topic in a packed room in Grainger Hall Tuesday, where four University of Wisconsin professors held a panel discussion.

Under the moderation of law professor Kathryn Hendley, the trio of geography professor Robert Kaiser, history professor David McDonald and Asian studies professor Uli Schamiloglu, tried to sort out the conflict.

Among the many issues flying through the discussion were Russia’s motives for going into Georgia, Western and American involvement and comparisons to the Cold War.

“The Russian government seems to be saying in this instance, and warning Ukraine as well, that ‘This is our backyard and we do have a sphere of interest’,” McDonald said. “It’s the reassertion of the claim to some sort of concrete interest in the area.”

According to the panel, Russia has re-established itself as a world power by going into Georgia — one of the main reasons it got involved in the conflict.

All three panelists addressed their thoughts on the White House’s reaction to the conflict and some of its possible motives for getting involved.

“The United States had really no way of reacting; it took a long time to react,” Schamiloglu said. “The presidents of Poland, Ukraine and Estonia were in the square of Tbilisi and the United States had no presence until much later. So it’s kind of sobering to realize that the U.S. really was not prepared for this.”

Schamiloglu also said by going into Georgia, Russia has established a gas and oil monopoly from the Caspian region to Europe. He jokingly added in a politically-charged comment, saying, “that’s probably why Dick Cheney was getting involved.”

However, without access to pipelines through Georgia, Europe and the United States will have to rely heavily on oil running through Russia. This is a concern for the United States and a factor in its involvement.

Flashbacks to the Cold War are easy to conjure up when Russia and America get into conflicts, and the members on Tuesday’s panel brought up multiple comparisons.

Kaiser believes the aggression between the global powers never entirely wrapped up.

“There is a Cold War, in a variety of contexts, at least discursively, that never did end,” Kaiser said. “While the overarching Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union formally came to an end in 1991, a new series of micro-level cold wars emerged at that time.”

These “micro cold wars” include the conflict between Georgia and Russia, which have been ongoing for years have just begun to come to fruition.

Kaiser, who has been to Georgia, added some Georgians think Russians have a nationalistic attitude left over form the Cold War and are fearful this attitude will gain power as their country does.

“Whether or not we like it, big countries tend to lay down the law,” McDonald said.