The Russian-Gerogian War of 2008 took International Relations scholars by surprise. Even though experts on the separatist conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia had warned about the volatility of the situation, the scale of military power deployed only months after the NATO Bucharest summit shocked and puzzled the international community. Realist inspired analysts were quick to label the violent escalation a showcase scenario of great power politics. The fact that Russia withdrew from Georgia proper and the questionable geopolitical gains of the intervention, however, give reason to question a solely materialist explanation of the events. After proposing a new framework of understanding the role of emotions in leadership behavior in the context of intergroup and intragroup identity management, this paper will analyze the affective dimension of the conflict. By offering an angle of analysis that captures the crucial emotional dimensions of the conflict I hope to produce additional insight into the dynamics that led to escalation and to contribute to the theoretical incorporation of emotional factors in foreign policy analysis more generally.
