Eu s response to the georgia crisis: an active peace broker or a confused and divided actor?

Crises have seemed to play a substantial role in shaping the course of EU foreign policy and the one which erupted between Georgia and Russia in August 2008 is not an exception in this regard because of its impact on the EU as an international actor. On this account, this paper seeks to examine the questions of how the EU responded to this crisis and what it can do further to deal with its implications for the security of wider Europe. It first offers an analysis of EU's immediate reaction towards both Georgia's ill-fated incursion into South Ossetia and the Russian counterattack against this move. Then the analysis focuses on the division among the EU members in giving an appropriate response to the crisis on Europe's doorstep. EU member states' contradictory positions, in terms of favoring a more accomodative policy or posing a hardline stance towards Russia, are closely analysed in the article. The study ends with an overview of what the Union can do more to avoid similar imbroglios in the future when it has to respond to any crisis again in Europe.

Georgia ,

Russia ,

the European Union ,

Caucasus ,

South Ossetia ,

Abkhazia ,