By David Dondua

The August 2008 Russo-Georgian war achieved less than Moscow had hoped. Russia seized 18 per cent of the country's territory, areas it had already controlled since the early 1990s, but failed to alter Georgia's strategic direction. What military force could not achieve, Moscow pursued through other means — disinformation, economic leverage, elite capture, and a sustained cognitive campaign targeting Georgian society's deepest cultural anxieties. Over the following decade and a half, these tools proved far more effective than tanks. Yet Moscow's campaign found the ground partly prepared for it. Western partners, through a series of miscalculations, inadvertently made the cognitive campaign easier to wage. Understanding what went wrong and why is essential not only for Georgia's future but also for every country facing Russian hybrid warfare.

Read How Russia Won the Hybrid War in Georgia