Seeking Sovereignty in Abkhazia and South Ossetia: Maneuvring Georgia, Russia, and the EU

The paper seeks to analyse the efforts by Abkhazia and South Ossetia to get international recognition. These two de facto states have lived through violent conflicts with Georgia in early 1990s, more than a decade of being identified as "frozen" conflicts, Russian - Georgian war in 2008, and then received the recognition of their sovereignty by Russia after the 2008 war. So, at this moment they are stuck in being minimally recognised without a more realistic hope in gaining wider support for their efforts as most of the international actors support the territorial integrity of Georgia. The goal of the papers is to demonstrate how in this apparent deadlock Abkhazia and South Ossetia are building their statehood. It is done, first, by analysing the strategies of the de facto states - a) bordering strategies; b) institution building - second, by analysing the actions of external players and their effects: Georgia, Russia, and the EU. The paper will demonstrate in what sense even though the official statehood is impossible, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are gaining the agency in international politics by exploiting the status quo tendencies of the international system.