balkans
The conflict in the Balkans is interesting because for years, reporters and politicians have touted it as being the result of ancient ethnic hatred but that isn't the case. This class has taught me, if nothing else, that the people of this region lived together peacefully for centuries and any conflicts that have arose among people were based not on ethnic origin but other things like class, ruling party, and so on. In fact, any problems that have arose in the former Yugoslavia have more to do with the issues raised by nationalism that developed during World War II and not centuries of three different peoples living together. In this paper, I am going to explore the history of the conflict in the Balkans from the time shortly after Josip Tito passed away until just before the Dayton Accords. Additionally, I am going to pause every so often to show that at each of the three distinct points of the conflict, the international community and the United States had it within their power to stop the violence. The three distinct phases are Kosovo, secession, and Bosnia and at each point, the lack of action or overreaction of the international community failed to solve the problems that these institutions had within their power to res
The power in Kosovo was vested in a small group of elite Albanians who did well at advancing national identity and improving education and other public works but who were poor at managing and maintaining a functional economy. The State Department did make attempts to alert the Western Allies in NATO of the potential for armed conflict but it fell upon deaf ears (Zimmerman, 5). What was the United States' position on the Serb attacks? The American government announced that it intended to withdraw it's ambassador from Belgrade. It is suggested that this particular time in the history of Yugoslavia is when the disintegration of Yugoslavia occurred. The leadership of the League of Communists demanded that the leaders of the protests be brought into custody fearing that if the leadership of the protests remained, the protests would continue. Serb travel had been restricted, Serb participation in government was becoming limited and the military began taking strategic positions with Serb majority areas (Glenny, 93). Additionally, the reelection of Milosevic in Serbia aroused fears that Yugoslavia would be dominated by a Greater Serbia. However, the EC insisted that whatever plan was reached had to be put on the ballot for a referendum. In February of 1992, the EC and United States sponsored a summit in Lisbon where the partitioning of Bosnia was agreed upon even though no lines were actually drawn. The third reason that the United States chose not to interfere and perhaps the most important is that intervening would imply a long term commitment of men, equipment, and supplies. These documents were believed to be the plans for a takeover of Slovenia by the JNA although the JNA and the Yugoslav government never confirmed the suspicions. Milosevic saw these Serbs as an opportunity to, if not save Yugoslavia as it was, then to at least expand what remained of Yugoslavia as much as possible. In March of 1992, the United States pushed for the independence of all four of the breakaway republics (Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, and Macedonia). The Yugoslav communists attempted a media campaign as well and had the economy not taken a nose-dive in the mid 1980's they might have been successful. Yugoslavia didn't have an impressive economy where American business interested could invest and reap massive dividends.
Common topics in this essay:
Sarajevo Finally,
Yugoslavia JNA,
League Communists,
Slovenia Croatia,
Albanians Kosovo,
JNA Yugoslav,
Kosovo Albanian,
Accords Additionally,
Albanian Muslims,
Serb Croat,
international community,
human rights,
croatia slovenia,
serbs living,
white house,
bush administration,
armed conflict,
united yugoslavia,
soviet union,
breakup soviet union,
kosovo albanian,
serbs living croatia,
human rights violations,
world war ii,
free market economy,
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Acceptance Essays
