The Yugoslav War, Europe and the Balkans: How to Achieve Security?

After more than four years of war in the former Yugoslavia, it has become clear that ethnic conflicts in the Balkans will continue to challenge Europe well into the next decade and beyond. The thread that runs through all the chapters of this book is that of a deeply troubled region whose dysfunctionalities are largely, but not exclusively, the product of the history of Southeastern Europe and the conditions under which Yugoslavia disintegrated after 1989.
 
The value of these essays lies in their illustration of the variety of ways in which these dysfunctionalities have expressed themselves: in the 'Balkanization of Europe'; in the 'instability arc' stretching from the Balkans to Southern Russia and Central Asia; in the cultural discontinuities between Central Europe and the Levant; and in the quasi-colonial status of Bosnia-Herzegovina prior to her independence. Last but not least, several of the authors deal with the rise of bureaucratic nationalism in Serbia.
 
What, then, can be done to promote stability and security in Southeastern Europe? Virtually all of the authors of this volume, despite their differences in approach, reject the view that the conflict in former Yugoslavia is purely a local problem resulting from the peculiarities of the Balkan mentality. On the contrary, they see the crisis in terms of the broader challenge of sustaining liberal values and a civic culture at a time when the struggle against communism no longer serves to unite Europe and the West.
 
Hopefully, the essays collected here will help to focus attention on the scope of the problem and the obstacles that must be overcome if stability and security are to be realized over the longer term in this strategically vital part of the world.