Year: 1995
Type: article
Abstract: F r o m T h e B a l k a n s "There is not a shortage of worst-case scenarios supporting the view that a new Balkan war would be just a matter of time.As far as its possible causes are concerned, contradictory explanations can be heard.Conventional wisdom among the "out of area" political analysts holds that the latter would be exclusively rooted in the "long tradition of aggressive mutual behaviour of the area's states".There are, however, voices who insist that such a verdict is not entirely fair.The view that the Balkans represent a disease rather than a geographical entity is based on a fundamental misreading of history.While the region has suffered more than its fair share of violency, much of it was engineered by competing alliances hatched in the West, rather than local animosities.*1Echoing historical memories of the kind, many "local" analysts tend to attribute the open and latent tensions within the Balkans to solely external factors; more or less explicitly, most of them share the view that the post-Cold War resuming of great-powers politics would be responsible for both existing and foreseeable conflicts within the Balkans.Obviously, this unilateral explanationwhich absolves the local actors from any responsibility -is as questionable as the tendency to portray the region as inherently conflict-ridden.It is not an ambition of this paper to present a new apocalyptic scenario.Nor, for that matter, to weigh the specific role played by local or external factors in triggering the dismantlement of former Yugoslavia, the current conflicts within its borders or a possible spillover thereof.Its task is a more modest one: to suggest that an inaccurate external perception of the security needs and potential of all the new democracies around former Yugoslavia might enhance the post-Cold War fragmentation of Central Europe2 as well as the security risks connected with it.
Author: Elena Zamfirescu
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4301356802