 The Georgian War of 2008 was an important event in global politics for many reasons. It represented a major turning point in the global power balance, and altered the direction of both the security interests of the Western NATO Alliance and the Russian Federation. Today, I will explain why this war happened, how it happened, and the reasons for its lingering importance into today's world. But before I do that, I want to announce an invention of mine, MacCon. YouTube makes it difficult for me to contact my fans since I haven't reached 10,000 subscribers yet. Because of this, I'm opening a group chat on my official Instagram page, the link to which is in the description, where I can notify you all when a new video is out and you can give me suggestions on what video I should make next. I think it's important to engage my community in the video-making process so the Mad Lad Army can keep growing. Now back to the video. The Caucasus Mountain Region has been home to a diverse range of peoples for thousands of years. Long story short, the mountains separated peoples, allowing different distinct groups to show up right next to each other. Within Georgia, four major ethno-linguistic groups exist, Circassians represented by Abkhazians, Indo-Europeans represented by Iranic Ossetians and Armenians, Turks by Aziris, and Kartvelians by Georgians and other minor related groups. Skipping ahead to the Soviet era, some of the more ethnically diverse Soviet republics had designated regions for minority groups, called Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics. Russia had a lot of these, which were succeeded by the republics, a topic that I have reviewed in a few videos. Georgia had three of these, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Ajara, the last of which has not really caused major problems for Georgia since as a whole the Ajarans are very similar to Georgians. By the time Georgia achieved independence on the 9th of April 1991, it had already been in the midst of inter-ethnic conflict. Abkhazians had been fighting the Georgians since 1989, and the Ossetians had also been fighting against Georgia since 1991. This time in history was turbulent for Georgia, as they also faced a bloody coup d'etat in 1991, and a civil war that lasted until the very end of 1993, which in turn led to continued political and economic instability for the rest of the decade. The Abkhazian and Ossetians were able to control most of their ethnic territory in the aftermath of the violence. Though the violence in Abkhazia has mainly stalled up to the present day, the violence in South Ossetia was temporarily frozen but not yet complete, and would lead to the war in 2008. The Russo-Georgian War in 2008, though the shortest conflict that I will discuss, was the most impactful for both regional and international politics. As I have just mentioned, one of the main reasons for the conflict was the inter-ethnic violence between the Georgian majority and the Abkhazian and to greater extent the Ossetian minority who wanted independence. But there were also other internal and external forces at play. The NATO alliance, which I have also explained in a previous video, was expanding eastward into former Soviet-Block states in the early 2000s. Within Georgia, a push for democratic reforms in integration with the West, called the Rose Revolution, occurred in late 2003, and saw Mikhail Sakashvili rise to power in the country. This revolution was also coupled with the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2005, which pushed for similar reforms. Both countries attended the Bucharest NATO summit in Romania in 2008, where both Ukraine and Georgia were promised future NATO membership. Unsurprisingly, this revelation was a shock to Russia and its security interests. Three former SSRs, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, had already joined NATO, and to have two more bordering nations be part of the alliance would further threaten Russian military and security interests. At this particular time, conflict in Ukraine was not really warranted, and Georgia was a much more plausible option for Russia to project its power and influence in. The hope was to incite a regime change in Georgia against Sakashvili, and deter the country's integration with NATO. Russian troops entered the South Ossetia conflict zone on August 7th, and subsequently accused Georgia of aggression against South Ossetia. Sakashvili, as a result, sent Georgia into brief conflict, despite the Western warnings against it, in hopes of regaining lost territory against the separatist movements in the country's north. The conflict ended on August 12th, as a result of a ceasefire brokered by France. The conflict was a strategic loss for Georgia, as they lost control of the entirety of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which were now under Russian protection. On the other hand, Russia benefited greatly from the conflict, now having some influence over Georgian foreign policy due to the presence of the aforementioned territories. Though this goal was accomplished, Russia was not able to stir a regime change in Georgia, and the country remained strongly pro-NATO to this day. The conflict has several implications in today's world. Georgia will now have a much harder time exceeding to the NATO alliance, as members of the alliance would not be willing to enter into conflict with Russia due to the nation's accession. Russia's former Prime Minister Miedvedev has stated that Georgia's accession could provoke a horrible conflict, something other NATO countries would not be willing to partake in. This war also proved Russia's ability to project power in former Soviet republics, which can be seen in the subsequent Donbass conflict in Ukraine beginning in 2014. Ukraine stands to be a strongly pro-Western nation, though its geographic proximity to Russia and its large ethnic Russian populations hold it back from entering Western alliances as well. With the Georgian war, Russia proved itself to be a major player in global politics, though its influence is not able to spread too far beyond its borders. The nation has expressed concern for the accession of Balkan nations like Montenegro joining the NATO alliance, though its ability to project any serious backlash against the accession was extremely limited. So yes, as you have learned, a five-day war really has caused a lot of geopolitical implications in today's world, and despite its challenges, Georgia has still managed to become a relatively successful country, implementing democratic reforms and having an increased quality of life over the past decade. All the nation's foreign policy remains a tricky subject, as Russia has some influence over what it can do, especially concerning its integration with the West. Thank you all for watching. Be sure to like, subscribe, and share this video with all of your friends. I will be starting a Patreon soon, so be sure to look out for that in the coming weeks. Also, we get closer to every day to 1000 subscribers, so every way you can help share my content is greatly appreciated. Thanks again and I'll see you next time.