NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/8617

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From: [e-mail] (Rich Winkel)
Subject: REVIEW: The Yugoslav Conflict
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/** wri.news: 579.0 **/
** Topic: REVIEW: The Yugoslav Conflict **
** Written 12:20 am  Nov 19, 1992 by gn:peacenews in cdp:wri.news **
     John Zametica The Yugoslav Conflict Adelphi Paper 270,
     International Institute for Strategic Studies, London, GBP 9.50.
     Reviewed by RENE WADLOW.

>>There is always a touch of chess-game metaphor with all writing about
strategic affairs, and John Zametica's style is no exception. It is
cool, detached, but first-rate. One can see the generals in their war
rooms pointing to large wall maps -- unless everything is done on
computer screens these days. But I would think that war planners in the
Balkans are still in the wall map tradition.

The aim of this short paper, The Yugoslav Conflict, is to give an
analysis of "the forces which led the Yugoslavs onto the warpath, and
those likely to destabilise their country even further" and to discuss
the implications of the crisis for the international community. As
Zametica points out, "Yugoslavia had satisfied most, perhaps all, of
the normal criteria for meaningful coexistence of different nations.
Its republics had a great deal of political and economic power in
relation to the central authorities; they had overlapping economic
interests, infrastructural ties, dispersed minorities, racial, ethnic,
and linguistic similarities, and even some joint historic enemies
across the borders. Yet the country collapsed."

The former-Yugoslav crisis is the first significant test of post-Cold
War Europe's ability to prevent violence as the chief method for
advancing sectional interests. It is also the first major post-Cold War
crisis for the peace movement in Europe (and one in which _Peace
News_ has played an important role, both in analysis of events and in
encouraging those who seek a nonviolent, negotiated, but just
resolution).

There may be some cynical deals in the making which might lead to an
end of some of the fighting but not to a permanently acceptable
solution. As Zametica writes, "muddling through, hard negotiations,
_ad hoc_ solutions, compromises; this, more often than not, is the
stuff of international relations. In any case, there are limits to what
the international community can achieve in Yugoslavia-type conflicts.
It can bribe or threaten, provide its good offices, and deploy
peacekeeping forces if all else fails. But the international community
is neither a moral entity nor a world policeman. To the extent that it
attempts to be both, it is liable to be caught between conflicting
choices and disappointed by the ineffectiveness of its instruments."

The chess game analogy is particularly appropriate when Zametica deals
with the regional dimension, and the interests of Italy, Germany,
Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania, and Greece. With rational
restraint, none of the regional states should be pulled into war, and
there are no interests which can be usefully advanced by favouring one
former-Yugoslav republic over another. It is noteworthy that the
Albanian foreign minister has said "we do not want to change any
borders, even less so through the use of force. If things develop in a
natural way, that is to say, once the borders cease to be dead-end
streets and become rather means of human communications, then a natural
homogenisation of the entire Albanian nation will take place."
The former-Yugoslav crisis has brought back to the fore an old -- and
rather abstract -- discussion about the nature of the "nation" and the
"state", just at a time when many of us believe that both concepts are
of little use for the future. As Claudio Magris wrote, "the concept of
united Europe is crumbling into bitterness amid visceral and
obsessional affirmations of local identities. These identities are no
longer affirmed and loved within the framework of a higher common
unity. They are idolised as an absolute."

Zametica's study is to be recommended as background reading for those
who want to become active in building support for peaceful solutions
within the structure of international relations. It is short enough, at
87 pages, to be absorbed quickly; detailed enough to be a starting
point for the advancement of proposals for a negotiated end to the
fighting.

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