Responding to Post-Cold War Disorder: Instability in the Balkans

Abstract

This chapter discusses the issues and dilemmas that Western states and institutions faced in South-Eastern Europe as a result of the ‘reactivation of history’ (in contrast to the view that anticipated its end) in the region as well as the policies pursued as a response to the risks generated by the Yugoslav imbroglio. The discussion poses a difficult conceptual challenge. It deals simultaneously with three asymmetrically interrelated levels of analysis: global, European and Atlantic security, and Southern, or more precisely South-Eastern Europe. The task is to examine the impact of the revolutionary changes in the international system as they affect (and are affected by) an evolving security community in the Atlantic region (see chapter 2) and, in turn, the Yugoslav crisis/war with emphasis on the interrelationship between the goals and policies of different actors in the region as well as (most importantly) those of relevant external actors.

The Balkans are tangible proof that we are living in a period of sweeping historical change. The collapse of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia has made the ‘Balkanisation of the Balkans’ partial reality.

Helmut Schafer

Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office

Germany

26 January 1994