Progress has been lacking for more than three years in the peace-building process, since the Bosnian and Herzegovine (BiH) parliament failed in April 2006 to decide on a new constitution which would make "Dayton-Bosnia" a more viable state, with rational institutions compatible with future EU and NATO membership. As a consequence, BiH remains a dysfunctional state, with frequently blocked decision-making mechanisms, nationalistic rhetoric and policies, as well as a lack of cross-entity and cross-ethnic cooperation.?
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Peace Studies, and Fragile/Failed State
The May 2008 elections in Serbia showed that the majority of the voters opted for European integration. However, difficulties in forming the government in the period after the elections proved that Serbian society is still highly divided. The polarization between pro-Europeans and traditionalists became so intense that it provided a coalition potential to Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia that even they did not expect. After an exhausting period of negotiations the Socialists decided to join the pro-European bloc, for the time-being.
Predrag Jureković, Ernst M. Felberbauer, and Frederic Labarre (Eds.)
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Austrian National Defence Academy
Abstract:
The declaration of independence of Kosovo on February 17 th , 2008 has marked the last stage of Kosovo's path to state building and also has closed the last chapter on the disintegration of Yugoslavia. The declaration of independence and the subsequent enacting of the Constitution by the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo were not annulled by United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). Therefore, the legality of this act was quietly accepted by UNMIK, despite the lack of agreement within United Nations Security Council (UNSC). In addition, a day before the independence was declared, the EU Special Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Dr. Javier Solana, appointed Mr. Peter Feith as the Head of International Civilian Office (ICO) and the Council of European Union decided to deploy the EULEX Mission to Kosovo as envisaged by the Ahtisaari's Comprehensive Status Proposal.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Ethnic Conflict, Peace Studies, and Treaties and Agreements
Gustav E. Gustenau, Jean-Jacques de Dardel, and Plamen Pantev
Publication Date:
04-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Austrian National Defence Academy
Abstract:
The purposeful efforts to explain and define the changes of the Cold War system of international relations continue for a second decade. Certain referent studies stimulate the thinking on these topics, including in the post-9/11 period. Understanding better the transformation of the international system would provide us with a better view on the changes in its regulative sub-system, including the international legal component of the latter.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, NATO, Development, Human Rights, and International Cooperation
Dennis J.D. Sandole, Predrag Jureković, Christian Haupt, Petar Atanasov, Gordana Bujišić, Dušan Janjić, Savo Kentera, Matthew Rhodes, Erwin A. Schmidl, and Wim van Meurs
Publication Date:
09-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Austrian National Defence Academy
Abstract:
More than 15 years after the end of the Cold War, it is clearer than ever that the 'New World Order' has failed to bring about eternal peace, and that we are nowhere near the 'end of history'. People are talking about third and even fourth generation peace operations (erroneously, in this author's opinion, by the way). So a historical perspective to this topic may be justified.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Security, NATO, and International Cooperation
The transition from interventionist (military) peace-keeping to local (civilian) ownership of public security management has proved not only to be a severe challenge for most peace-keeping operations and their civilian administrators, but also a reason for such operations being prolonged at tremendous cost. In many cases, peace-keeping operations and/or other international agents rapidly became part of the local economy, and thus contributed to the preservation of the status quo rather than to a sustainable process leading toward local governance; meanwhile local police organs - often remnants of the winning force in the antecedent conflict - remained tribal or clannish in their approaches and interests. They could thus hardly be seen as enforcement agencies of a law which remains equally applied to all citizens.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, Security, Development, International Organization, and War
My general goal in this presentation, as it is for all of us at this workshop, is to examine the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe: the "pearl of the German presidency of the European Union" adopted in Köln on 10 June 1999, the day that NATO's 78-day bombing campaign of Serbia ceased.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, NATO, and International Cooperation
The Stability Pact was launched on the eve of the Kosova war and conflict Paradoxically, though, Kosova has so far benefited the lest from it. Only very recently Kosova managed to have its own representative in it. This is a sign that the same mistakes are being made vis-à-vis Kosova as in the past, seeing the region as a bogus or maverick part of the far South-East of Europe.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, and International Cooperation
Each conversation about Sand_ak as one of the paradigms of political crises in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, that is in Serbia and Montenegro, would have to be started with basic data about the area itself, about the causes and the nature of problems that exist concerning Sand_ak and within it, starting from the time when it was, under the title the "sand_ak question", for the first time the subject of interest of the international community, far away in 1858.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Ethnic Conflict, and Genocide
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia, Serbia, and Montenegro
The topic of this conference, "Multiethnic State or Ethnic Homogeneity - the case of South East Europe", is both theoretically interesting and practically important. It is directly connected to a highly problematic reality as well as to the awareness of a self-evident need to get out of it not only quickly, but also in a secure way, in order to avoid a turned back of similar events.