The Economist Debate Series: Should the West Stand Up to Russia?

"The Economist is sponsoring an online debate series on the West’s reaction to a “newly assertive” Russia. I was asked to contribute. My article went live today:
In the wake of last month’s brief but intense fighting over Georgia’s breakaway province of South Ossetia, should the West step up efforts to contain Russian aggression?

Absolutely not. It is wrong to read the South Ossetia conflict as Russian aggression, and it is equally wrong to conceive of the West’s reactions — and planned reactions — as containment. We have been reading South Ossetia all wrong since the beginning, and the consequences are enormous and potentially tragic.

The bottom line: Russia’s incursion into South Ossetia was justified, both in the particulars of Russia’s relationship to Georgia, and in light of Russia’s evolving, but troubled, relationship with Europe and the United States."
War is Boring