The most violent stage of the Georgian/Abkhaz conflict took place over 17 years ago, yet advances towards peace have been stalled for years. When the August 2008 war between Georgia and Russia over South Ossetia happened, peace talks had been completely suspended since July 2006. The August war and subsequent recognition by Russia of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states considerably changed the dynamic of the conflict.
The multi-lateral ‘Geneva discussions’, co-chaired by the UN, EU and OSCE, attended by delegations from Russia, Georgia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and the US, are the main official forum through which the sides can discuss issues of security and humanitarian concern. The discussions are characterised by a disagreement between the different actors as to who are the sides to the conflict: Georgia-Russia, or Georgia-Abkhazia and Georgia-South Ossetia. Nevertheless, Georgian-Abkhaz relations and Georgian-Russian relations are closely intertwined, and dialogue between Georgian and Abkhaz societies remains more important than ever to find ways out of the impasse.
Since 2008, our Georgian and Abkhaz partners have commissioned each other to research certain aspects of the conflict in order to engage in joint analysis and a series of public debates, to promote a new way of thinking about the conflicts in the ‘"new realities". Four publications within this ‘Dialogue through Research’ series have been published to date: Dialogue on Security Guarantees in the Context of the Georgian Abkhaz Conflict [2] (September 2009); International Engagement in the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict Resolution Process [3] [4](May 2010); The Politics of Non-recognition in the Context of the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict [5] (March 2011); and The De-isolation of Abkhazia [6]: Current Prospects in the Context of Non-recognition (April 2011).