This article seeks to specify further and illustrate how the security dilemma can be used to explain the causes of tensions between ethnic groups and the process by which tensions can escalate into violence. The argument develops as follows. The first section briefly outlines the definition of the security dilemma, and then shows how it has been applied to competition and conflict between ethnic groups. The next section further specifies the conditions under which the inter-ethnic security dilemma can be especially intense, raising the likelihood of the outbreak of violence. The final section illustrates the workings of the inter-ethnic security dilemma using the case of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which has been the site of two relatively separate large-scale secessionist conflicts in the early 1990s, both involving Georgians, one against the Ossetians, and the other against the Abkhazians. Violence began in the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast in north central Georgia in late 1990 after the Georgian Supreme Soviet revoked the region's traditional autonomy within Georgia. The unrest continued until the middle of 1992 when Russian troops broke a Georgian blockade of the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali and inserted peacekeeping forces. Abkhazia, in northwestern Georgia, declared its independence from the Republic of Georgia in July of 1992 after years of tension with ethnic Georgians living in the area, and several unsuccessful attempts to join the Russian federation. This declaration sparked a conflict that lasted until September 1993 when Abkhazian forces, with Russian assistance, pushed Georgian forces out of the region and Russian peacekeepers were inserted.