The European Union and Georgia : An Effective Approach to Conflict Resolution?

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the two de-facto regimes of Abkhazia and South Ossetia have fought actively for their independence from Georgia and international recognition, until the conflict in the Southern Caucasus has reached a frozen status quo in 2008. To maintain peace in the region and to ultimately achieve a resolution of the conflict, the European Union (EU) has become actively involved as an external mediator and has introduced several bilateral agreements and monitoring measures. In this thesis, the EU’s conflict resolution mechanisms towards the territorial and political conflict in Georgia are evaluated through an input-output analysis to answer to which extent these measures are effective or not. Obstacles like identarian differences between the conflicting parties have to be considered, and political, as well as economic motivations for bigger actors, that hinder this process. The result of the evaluation is that in the field of conflict prevention, the EU’s measures and implemented policies are contributing effectively, while the active promotion of conflict transformation or conflict settlement is only achieved to a small degree, and is not effective within the current approach