Lecture takes fight out of Russia-Georgia conflict

This summer’s Russia-Georgia conflict’ provided the world with its fair share of fighting, but consensus was the dominant theme at Boston University Monday as professors from around the world discussed Georgia’s future and its impact on the European Union.
Visiting from the College of Europe, which has two campuses in Belgium and Poland, professor Jacques Rupnik joined Yale University political science professor Jolyon Howorth to discuss the role the EU has played in the recent conflict between Russia and Georgia and its potential effect on European relations.
BU’s Center for International Relations and the Institute of Human Sciences sponsored the panel discussion.
‘If the crisis of Georgia is so important to Europe and Russia, it has a strategic importance to the United States,’ BU psychology professor Chris Michalski said.
This summer’s military dispute between Russia and Georgia, which is not an EU member state, was the first major test of the EU’s foreign policy, Howorth said.
‘The relationship between the EU and Russia has always been very difficult,’ he said.’ ‘It’s often assumed that the EU is just a political football for Russia. That’s not so.” ‘
Though Russia is typically seen as a world power, it is actually weak in several areas. Its economy is struggling, its army lacks strength and it is geographically isolated from political allies like Nicaragua, eoworth said.
Despite the tensions between the EU and Russia, he said the two entities can come together because of their similar interests on a range of topics from stabilization of their shared borders to political relations with Iran.
‘There’s a whole range of major issues on which the EU and Russia can develop or find a strategic partnership,’ he continued.’
Western Europeans perceive the conflict to be the result of actions by the ‘really reckless Georgian president,’ while countries that were once under Soviet control were more inclined to see Russia as an aggressive oppressor, Rupnik said. As the conflict persisted, the differing views grew more similar.
‘The one thing that you see as a change is the increased perception of Russia as a threat, but that’s quite expected,’ he said. ‘You see tanks on your TV screen, and you think it’s bad news.’
An agreement on views toward Russia does not necessarily help the EU figure out a way to respond, however.
‘The perceptions may be getting more convergent, but that doesn’t help you with what foreign policy you should choose,’ he said, noting that possible actions could include cancelling partnership treaties with Russia and imposing sanctions.
BU Russian language lecturer Marina Khazanov said she was surprised to agree with so much of what the speakers discussed. A native of Russia, Khazanov said she expected a different opinion on how to deal with Russia’s foreign policy.
‘I am disappointed,’ she said. ‘I came to fight, and there is nothing to fight about.’