Will NATO start the process of granting membership to Georgia in 2008?

can we get some clarifaction on what "starting the process" means? this is a spitzer waiting to happen.

@diesel - The "spitzer" rule applies only to resignations and the settlement of those. It is best that we don't use the spitzer word everytime I question might need clarified. You know what they say about the little boy who cried "wolf".

I agree with diesl. Please define the qualifier "start the process."

To my read, "starting the process of granting membership" means that Georgia (along with Ukraine) would be granted "Membership Action Plans", the first step toward joining the Alliance.

[This was in the first linked reference in the background.]

'Course, even if my sense of what it means is accurate, it needs to be confirmed and endorsed by a category editor.

newswrangler is correct.

It's in the background and in the articles. If they grant a Membership Action Plan to Georgia, that starts the process for Georgia to gain membership in NATO (see first article - the Time one).
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1832988,00.html?imw=Y

This is such a good question -- from a member who joined today ((welcome vadchen ;-))
This question is, as they say in poker, the nuts as concerns the issue of Georgia and Russia!

thanks to NW and admin for clarifying.

Thanks for the clarification.
I assume "in December 2008" means exactly what it says...

Sorry for not being specific, I'll try better next time :)
Thanks for infernalmachine and newswrangler.
Eric, next summit will take place in Brussels on December 8, however I don't know when it will end, so I set suspend date as 31/12.

Look who's talking now! Seems that Georgia's chances are rising.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24197441-23109,00.html

However we should wait for Russia's response. I hope they won't nuke Georgia on December 7 :)

NATO is turning into another UN. what did NATO do to get russia out of georgia? they'll never agree to add georgia for fear of hurting russia's feelings. wish this wasn't so long till settlement time.

@Erik. Good point. Recent events mean that there is an emergency NATO meeting now scheduled for early September. It is possible that one or both of Ukraine and Georgia are offered MAPs at that time. As the question is written, this would not allow for a Yes settlement, either in September (because it wasn't "in December 2008") or in December (because it was already granted).

I'm going to briefly suspend this question. I'd like to hear any feedback on whether I (we) should change "in December 2008" to "in 2008", or whether we should leave the question as-is, which might mean a MAP is granted in September, but this question settles as No (which is a bit counter-intuitive). If the date is changed, I will be open to voiding any individual wagers of people who would have wagered differently (but only for a limited time).

Please let me know here in the comments.

I vote for changing to "in 2008"

i'm open to changing it prior to the creator's approval. imho vadchen should voice his/her opinon before deciding.

I have just emailed vadchen to request their opinion on this. Thanks for the 2 votes. Anyone else?

I think should be changed to "in 2008", since I put December there only as reference no "next NATO summit". Which now appears to be in September. The meaning of the question is "will Georgia join NATO in current political situation", and not "will Georgia join NATO on certain date".

I believe it should be changed to include any
emergency meetings...it would certainly stay with the spirit of the market, as vadchen has stated.

I vote to change to "in 2008" for the same reasons as prior comments.

Great. Sounds pretty unanimous. So I'll change to "in 2008" and re-open the question.

(If this change bothers you and you want your previous wager(s) voided, just email me at patrick@hubdub.com or "flag for review" (under the bar graph) by the end of August)

Just so you know, I may have been a little hasty in suggesting there will be an emergency meeting of NATO in September. The emergency meeting that is scheduled is only of the EU. So at the moment the next NATO meeting is still in December. But who knows? At least we're prepared for all possibilities. ;-)

Hi all,

Interesting question.. I am not so familiar with all the rules.. what is the "spitzer rule"? anyone?

The boring answer is it's the last point under 2.3.1 in the rules http://www.hubdub.com/public/goodquestion

"Unless specified otherwise, a question asking when a public figure will resign will be settled on the date the figure announces their intention to resign rather than the date the resignation becomes effective (the Spitzer clause)."

Maybe someone else can give you the more interesting story behind it!