Description
The war in Abkhazia (1992-1994) and its aftermath provide a valuable case study of international conflict management and peacekeeping in times of crisis and transition. This separatist conflict occurred in a geopolitically and strategically important location as the transition from the Cold War to the post-Cold War order was underway but not yet complete. This paper uses the archives of the United Nations Observer Mission In Georgia (UNOMIG) to reconstruct the local, national and international dynamics of conflict management and peacekeeping during the Abkhaz conflict. The available documents provide fine-grained detail of developments as they unfolded and insights from the organisational and operational to the diplomatic domains. By using these materials to reconstruct crucial aspects of the case, the paper investigates several vital processes and problems of international relations: the ambivalent involvement of the UN as engaged in a part of the world that had been largely off-limits during the Cold War; the violent emergence of a new – and still contested – security architecture in the Caucasus as Russia adapted to new international borders along its vulnerable southern flank and Georgia fought to preserve the integrity of its post-independence borders; the dynamics of cooperation and conflict between the UN and Russia as both sought to establish their new roles as peacekeepers and security providers in the region while Russia also reasserted its political and military dominance in the South Caucasus; and how the war itself and the subsequent failed peace process exposed tensions between self-determination and territorial integrity and the place these contradictory norms would have in the emerging post-Cold War world order.
