Russia, Georgia, and IR Theory (Part I)
By 
Moscow McDonalds.
Tblisi McDonalds.
And on IR Theories that should be taken more seriously, Chris Bertram notes both Russia and Georgia currently rank at 7, the highest democratic score, in the Polity Index. As Chris allows, this produces some difficult questions for the Polity Index, but then again I think it’s fair to say that the lack of war between countries marginally less democratic than either Russia or Georgia has been taken as positive evidence for Democratic Peace Theory…
I’m working on applying James Fearon’s Rationalist Explanations For War to the Confrontation in the Caucasus (won’t someone else please pick that catchy alliteration up?), which I’ll hopefully finish in the next couple of days.