This paper attempts to argue that the current structure of relations in South East Europe (SEE) and in the Balkans in particular requires regional, or local, integration before any membership in greater bodies (like the European Union) can be considered.
Topic:
Security, International Cooperation, and International Organization
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
Approaching and testing the capacity and effectiveness of the nation-states in the Balkans is a long-term research necessity for many reasons: First, despite the tendency of making the state boundaries less and less significant in the era of new information technology, global economy and new communications capabilities the nation-state will remain the key organisational unit of the international system and the features of national sovereignty will continue to dominate and influence the management toolbox of international relations and domestic politics. Hence, any form and nuance of the nation-state in the Balkans will have a decisive meaning for dealing with the political and security agenda of the region.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Ethnic Conflict, and Globalization
Recent events require that policymakers revise substantially the conventional assessment that Macedonia is the foremost political “success story” of the Balkans. In fact, it is an underperforming post-conflict country still very much at risk, unable to tackle – operationally or politically -- its security challenges without upsetting an uncertain ethnic balance. Clear-eyed analysis of the dynamics driving unrest, from criminality and weak policing to an equally weak economy and corruption, is needed if a country that narrowly avoided war in 2001 is to secure long-term stability. Specifically, Macedonia cannot yet safely do without the presence of an international security force.
In the following study, Peter Trost analyses the strong interdependencies between economic and security - political factors in a conflict region, specifically focusing on the influence of economical reasons for the break - up of Former Yugoslavia. This is especially interesting as most studies tend to focus on the political aspects rather than concentrating on questions of economy when dealing with the disintegration processes leading to the destruction of the Former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The United States and its European allies often found themselves at loggerheads in the 1990s. Disputes over arms control, peacekeeping operations in the Balkans, the environment, and the role of the United Nations (UN) were frequent. European governments repeatedly accused the United States of being disengaged and not living up to its responsibilities as a global power. When it did, they feared U.S. power and its disdain for multilateral approaches to international problems.
Nicholas Whyte, Nadia Alexandrova Arbatova, and Dana H. Allin
Publication Date:
07-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies
Abstract:
For most of the last ten years, Europeans have been embarrassed by Jacques Poos' rash promise of 1991; during the conflicts in Bosnia and Croatia from 1991 to 1995, the phrase seemed only to sum up the ineffective ness and the pomposity of the European Union's pretensions to be an actor of importance in its own backyard. The Dayton Agreement of 1995 was achieved only when Richard Holbrooke threatened to pull the US out of the process and 'leave it to the Europeans'. Terrified by this awful prospect (at least, according to Holbrooke's version), the warring parties agreed to the deal.
The last decade of the Twentieth century brought the issue of civil-military relations to the centre of political, national security, legal and broader social studies in the countries of South-East Europe or the Balkans. There is no surprise, because the need of more and efficient civilian democratic control over the security sector has been in the focus of the political and social debate of the countries that were undergoing fundamental systemic changes.
Topic:
Security, International Cooperation, and Regional Cooperation
Tufik Burnazovic, Athanasios E. Drougos, Gustav E. Gustenau, Wolf Oschlies, Dragan Simic, Avgustina Tzvetkova, Biljana Vankovska, and Vladimir Šaponja
Publication Date:
05-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Austrian National Defence Academy
Abstract:
Secessionist conflicts have become a major feature of the European political landscape in the 1990s. International response to them has varied from full-scale military intervention to half-hearted mediation, generally providing for freezing of most active hostilities and for addressing most urgent humanitarian needs. Europe in the 1990s saw more “peace” operations on its soil than any other region in the world, but still was not able to find satisfactory answers. Kosovo is a tragic illustration of that and the deployment of NATO troops after a massive use of airpower still lacks the framework of a political plan and appears very tentative and opportunistic. Several specifically European factors define the perspective of a possible new wave of secessionist conflicts in the region.
Topic:
Security, NATO, International Cooperation, and Regional Cooperation
Military leaders are often accused, usually unfairly, of fighting the last war. It would be a pretty poor general, however, who failed to learn from what worked and what didn't work when military plans were actually put to the test. The task is to correct what went wrong and to build on what went right without losing sight of the fact that conflicts in the future may be quite different from those in the past. It is the premise of this article that a careful look at significant U.S. military operations over about the past twenty years—roughly the period the author has served in Congress—can help shape answers to a surprisingly large number of contemporary issues in defense policy. What follows is a brief review of seven of these military operations, followed by a discussion of some important lessons.