Security concerns in South-Eastern Europe at the turn of millenium

At present no war is being fought in SEE. However this outward tranquility was imposed from outside through energetic military interventions by the West, the establishment of international military and security protectorates over parts of the region, as well as by stationing peace-keeping troops, international police, armed and unarmed foreign observers at the hottest trouble spots in SEE. The suppression of armed hostilities did not however add up to real and durable peace. Thus security in the region still remains precarious. Security problems of South-Eastern Europe have been by and large concentrated in or directly related to the area called the Balkans. As mentioned earlier these two expressions are not synonymous. South-Eastern Europe is a wider notion which was recently given by the Western powers a curious political dimension supplementing its geographic content. The active involvement of NATO and EU member states in SEE as well as the presence of international peace-keeping forces will be necessary for, at least, a decade in order to prevent new outbursts of violence. However the structures of two international protectorates cannot provide for self-sustaining political and social stability in the area

How to deal with the Western Balkans

At the turn of the last century, outward tranquillity was bestowed upon the Western Balkans, the most volatile and troublesome part of the European continent. The termination of large scale violence, however, did not add up to long-term stability in the region. Its political elites have proven to be incapable and/or unwilling to resolve their differences among themselves and peacefully in order to provide for the region’s security. The management of the most burning problems in the Western Balkans would be best assured within the process of European integration. With active and well-coordinated roles played by key international organizations, the Western Balkans could eventually be transformed into a region of security, democracy, and prosperity

Si ta trajtojmë Ballkanin Perëndimor?

Me përfundimin e shekullit të kaluar, një qetësi e jashtme u imponua në Ballkanin Perëndimor, rajonin më të paqëndrue-shëm dhe të trazuar në Kontinentin Evropian. Megjithatë, fundi i një dhune të shkallës të lartë nuk siguroi stabilitet afatgjatë në rajon. Elitat politike të tij kanë dëshmuar se nuk janë të afta apo nuk dëshirojnë të zgjidhin mospajtimet brenda tyre në mënyrë paqësore dhe të sigurojnë qetësinë e rajonit. Menaxhimi i problemeve më delikate në Ballkanin Perëndimor do të ishte siguruar më së miri në bazë të procesit të integrimit evropian. Me ndihmën e koordinuar të organizatave kyçe ndërkombëtare, Ballkani Perëndimor do të mund të shndërrohej në një rajon të sigurt, demokratik dhe të begatë

The European Union, NATO, and the “Arab Spring”

At the onset of 2011 an unprecedented wave of social unrest and political upheaval began to sweep across the Middle East and North Africa. Following the first demonstrations in Tunisia, and the flight of its President Ben Ali to Saudi Arabia, the wave has engulfed much of the Arab-speaking world, from Morocco to Bahrain. While some rulers have abdicated peacefully, violence has been a constant. In the majority of cases, the ruling regimes met the spontaneous, massive, and peaceful demonstrations with brutal police repression; some even called in the regular army to strike down unarmed civilians with heavy conventional weapons

NATO’s Enlargement and Slovenia

NATO’s enlargement into Central East Europe has been a lively debated topic for almost a decade. The highly variegated opinions and positions on this question in Europe and North America have ranged from angry denunciations, solid criticisms, serious doubts, guarded support to enthusiastic accolades. These contrasting attitudes underlined the flux and uncertainties as well as the divisibility of security in the post-Cold War era. Although Slovenia is viewed by a number of observers as a candidate in the best position to be invited by NATO at the next turn, this prospect remains uncertain. The key general problem lies in the large disparity between the desires of the remaining Central-East European candidates, including Slovenia, to join the alliance and NATO’s willingness (and some members’ clear unwillingness) to expand (it) further to the East and South-East. There is also a number of imponderables: the NATO-EU relations and the development of the European defense identity; the future of Russia; the international policies of the next US administration; the experience with the first Central East European round etc

Turkey’s Imperial Legacy and the Potential for Conflict in the Balkans

Turkey is the only Eurasian state nearly surrounded by a circle of acute hot and “frozen conflicts”, ranging from low-intensity violence through terrorism to full-fledged wars. The prevailing pattern of inter-communal and interethnic conflicts in the Balkans and on Cyprus has long been different from the patterns of conflict in the rest of Europe and in the Near East. This difference is closely related to the fact that these lands experienced in the past a centuries- long rule by the Ottoman Empire, whose legal successor is the Republic of Turkey. The inter-communal conflict potential in the rest of Europe used to differ substantially from the one in the Balkans, but the difference has been greatly reduced as Western Europe has in one respect become “balkanised”

Security concerns in South-Eastern Europe at the turn of millenium

At present no war is being fought in SEE. However this outward tranquility was imposed from outside through energetic military interventions by the West, the establishment of international military and security protectorates over parts of the region, as well as by stationing peace-keeping troops, international police, armed and unarmed foreign observers at the hottest trouble spots in SEE. The suppression of armed hostilities did not however add up to real and durable peace. Thus security in the region still remains precarious. Security problems of South-Eastern Europe have been by and large concentrated in or directly related to the area called the Balkans. As mentioned earlier these two expressions are not synonymous. South-Eastern Europe is a wider notion which was recently given by the Western powers a curious political dimension supplementing its geographic content. The active involvement of NATO and EU member states in SEE as well as the presence of international peace-keeping forces will be necessary for, at least, a decade in order to prevent new outbursts of violence. However the structures of two international protectorates cannot provide for self-sustaining political and social stability in the area