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# Georgia: study the history
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/georgia-study-the-history/
- Published: 2008-08-19T16:08:28.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:41:26.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:41

[George Hewitt](https://www.opendemocracy.net/article/abkhazia-and-south-ossetia-heart-of-conflict-key-to-solution) doesn't like the way:

"the torrent of media commentary on the Georgia-Russia war has been characterised by near-obsessive geopolitical calculation, which \[...\] tends by default to view Georgia's "lost" territories (if they are viewed at all) as nothing more than inconsiderate and irritating pawns on a global chessboard."

Georgia has its own "near abroad", that happen to be within its UN-defined borders; Russia has Georgia in its "near abroad" ... Remember M[andelbrot's ginerbread man](http://www.mandelbrot-dazibao.com/Mset/Cardioid.gif?ref=opendemocracy.net): whatever the scale you examined it at, you'd get those repeating patterns. Fractals of nationalism. And what about the non-Ossetian minorities in South Ossetia? Where will they go, [as one of our commenters asked](https://www.opendemocracy.net/article/the-georgia-russia-conflict-lost-territory-found-nation#comments%5Ffor%5Fnode).

Surely there is a pattern here that we can see should be avoided: to treat the *other*, be it ethny, nation, or however you care to define the outsider, as a means to your political end? Shouldn't alarm bells from the Balkans be ringing in NATO's ears?

[George Hewitt](https://www.opendemocracy.net/article/abkhazia-and-south-ossetia-heart-of-conflict-key-to-solution) provides the historical background and the detail that we need to read to understand---to really sympathetically understand--- that when we take the short-cut of geopolitics, we allow ourselves to think of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as mere pawns in a new cold war, then we have already ruled out the possibility of a humane solution.