The original NATO strategy regarding Yugoslavia has, despite its military triumphs, proved deficient for achieving the planned political objectives. That is why the existing alliance strategy has been abandoned & replaced by a new one. This change of direction is under way; the success of NATO's entire military action hinges on its success, as do the relations on the Balkans & the future of NATO's new strategic concept designed in late Apr at the Washington summit. Adapted from the source document.
The author analyzes the genesis & the scenarios of the Kosovo crisis resolution, as well as the possible political reverberations of the NATO military intervention. The premise is that the Kosovo crisis is only a continuation of the break-up of the former Yugoslavia; Kosovo has for centuries been a separate entity largely populated by Albanians; the policy of Serbian nationalism has permanently discriminated against the Albanian population; & prior to the recent air strikes against Yugoslavia, Serbia had systematically led an ethnic-cleansing campaign on Kosovo. Although the author recognizes that support for the NATO military action can hardly be found in the tenets of the UN Charter, he argues that it can nevertheless be justified by international law. He points out that NATO's military campaign enjoyed the broad support of the people of NATO member countries, but that it has made a rift in the European Left. The new Left was in the forefront of the action, while the old, dogmatic, & sectarian Left found itself in the ranks of its most vocal opponents. The author claims that Milosevic, with his overall politics, & particularly his policy on Kosovo, had propelled the West into an action from which it could not extricate itself. He concludes that the consequences of Belgrade's defeat will be (1) the collapse of Milosevic's regime (the beginning of his end); (2) the final incapacitation of Milosevic's politics to create new conflicts; (3) the protectorate over Kosovo & its autonomy, with a factual independence from Serbia; (4) the independence of Montenegro; (5) Reinforcing the Dayton policy in Bosnia & Herzegovina (eliminating centrifugal tendencies); (6) the organized participation of the West in the transitional processes in this region (the pact on the stability of southeast Europe); & (7) bolstering the democratic & weakening the undemocratic tendencies in the region. Adapted from the source document.
The Serbo-Albanian conflict in Kosovo has had direct repercussions for Balkan security over the last 150 years. The international community would occasionally pay more attention to this conflict, but never long enough to resolve it for good. Both the Serbian & the Albanian side put in a lot of effort toward the resolution of the conflict & came up with several proposals, ranging from various modes of Kosovo autonomy to the idea of the cantonization & refederalization of SR Yugoslavia, to the independence of Kosovo, or to its being turned into a protectorate. All these suggestions had mostly been one-sided, either pro-Serbian or pro-Albanian, none of them conducive to a compromise. All this eventually resulted in a military conflict & the attempt to impose solutions by force. Nevertheless, after the NATO intervention, negotiations will have to be resumed, & the familiar proposals for the resolution of the Kosovo question will have to be rehashed, only this time the situation will require much more good will & willingness to make compromises, on both the Albanian & Serbian sides, as well as considerable support by international community. 11 References. Adapted from the source document.
Zdravko Petak's Javna dobra i politicko odlucivanje ([The Public Good and Political Decision Making] Zagreb: Biblioteka Politicka misao, 2001) is discussed. Petak's criticism of the Keynesian thesis that state intervention into free market economy is both necessary & effective to ensure the public well-being of the citizens is examined. Petak applies the theory of public choice to debunk this view & argues that the state is (1) unable to act on economically efficacious precepts & (2) not a higher-rank, external, & objective actor capable of regulating economic processes outside the basic human instincts & behaviors that underlie the functioning of private markets. The origin & evolution of the public choice theory are outlined, & the universal postulates of egoism (self-interest), rationality, & maximization governing human behavior are described. It is concluded that Petak's rebuttal of the arguments advanced by proponents of state intervention into the national economy is convincing, however, he fails to formulate a viable alternative. Also, he does not address several related issues seen to provide subject matter for a future book. Z. Dubiel
NATO's military action in Yugoslavia is a pivotal event that is going to leave an indelible impact on the future direction of international relations. The author first analyzes the underlying causes of the campaign, among which were the international community's resolve to finally punish Milosevic, be instrumental in eliminating his regime, drive out Russian interests from the Balkans, & espouse a positive stance toward Muslim countries, as well as the internal political American reason: the desire to strengthen President Clinton's position. This action has also had a manifold significance for the new world order, since it poses the questions of the world order's content, nature, leadership, & norms in a new light. In the process of establishing the new post-Cold-War relations, various tendencies that will pave the way to the new millennium will clash. On the one hand, there will be the exclusive approach based on force & interests, & on the other, the desire to establish the relations in which human rights will be the fundamental criterion for assessing the suitability of a country for a full membership in the newly unified international community. Adapted from the source document.
Historical precedents & a host of international documents -- from Daniel Webster's speech on the Caroline Affair of 1837 to the 1949 Geneva Convention & recent UN Security Council resolutions -- are perused to take a legal stand on the 1999 NATO intervention against Serbia to stop the Kosovo genocide. A distinction is made between humanitarian intervention, humanitarian relief action, & the right of a sovereign state to intervene abroad to protect the life of its citizens. It is opined that there is no international law granting states the right to take a military action on behalf of citizens of another state. However, a set of rules of action in exceptional circumstances sanctioning a military humanitarian intervention is established, outlining a scenario where such an intervention would be legal. It is pointed out that the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo met the criteria & satisfied the conditions necessary for a lawful humanitarian intervention, & the NATO military action should be viewed as such. Adapted from the source document.
After WWI, at the Versailles Peace Conference, the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, & Slovenes had to win its international recognition & define its borders. Since it had not belonged to the camp of the Entente forces, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, & Slovenes had no representatives in the Territorial Commission, which submitted its proposals to the Big Four. This situation was exploited by Italy, which would always come up with the least favorable version of the Kingdom's borders. Italy's proposal regarding Austria's border with the Kingdom was that the entire Celovec valley be ceded to Austria. However, the French, British, & American experts for territorial issues demurred. After protracted & tense wrangling, it was decided that the Celovec valley be divided into two plebiscitary zones. A plebiscite in Carinthia was not in the interest of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, & Slovenes & its delegation tried to modify this decision, but to no avail. The Belgrade government's military intervention in Carinthia was an attempt to create a fait accompli, but it proved counterproductive, as the occupation only deepened the local population's hostility toward the Yugoslav state & affected the result of the plebiscite: the majority Slovenian population in Zone A opted for Austria, a great setback for the Yugoslav side. Adapted from the source document.
Violations of human rights have become an almost daily occurrence reported on TV & in the press. Massacres, murders, torture, violence, imprisonment of political opponents, are facts of life in a number of contemporary states; these states blatantly curtail the human rights of their citizens. It is argued that the governments & peoples of other countries have not only the right but also the duty to demand that these rights be respected. This feeling of global responsibility is increasing every day as part of the process of globalization itself. 1 Table. Adapted from the source document.
