![]() ![]() Then, as now, the Great Powers were obsessed with notions of credibility and prestige. Then, as now, Western Europeans and Americans were appalled by Balkan savagery and the massacres of entire communities. There are obvious similarities between the present Balkan crisis and the wars at the beginning of the century World War I was preceded by two limited Balkan wars, in 19. But the Titoist system could not survive the multiple shocks of the disintegration of the East-West power balance, the advent of democracy in Eastern Europe, and an economic crisis in Yugoslavia caused in large part by Tito's refusal to embrace a free-market system. The late Yugoslav leader Josip Broz, known as Tito, succeeded in maintaining stability in the Balkans for more than three decades before his death in 1980 through a combination of political repression and a skillful balancing act that involved playing NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact against each other. Similarly, the latest eruption of ethnic warfare has coincided with the collapse of communist rule and the end of Europe's Cold War divisions. At the beginning of the century, it was the Ottoman Empire that was breaking apart, leaving other states, including Austria-Hungary and newly reborn Serbia and Bulgaria, to rush to fill the vacuum. While ethnic tensions have always existed in the Balkans, they have tended to flare at times of upheaval in the wider European security system. Historically, the Balkans also has been a place where the aspirations of small nations have come into conflict with the interests of the Great Powers. It is the place where East meets West, where Islam meets Christendom, where the Ottoman Empire met the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and where communism met free-market democracy. The region lies across one of the world's great geopolitical fault lines. ![]() Named after the rugged mountains that occupy the isthmus of land between the Danube River and the plains of northern Greece, the Balkans are home to dozens of different nations, from indigenous peoples, such as the Albanians, to more recent arrivals, such as the Slavs. ![]() The monolithic threat of communism has given way to a multitude of different threats, many of which have their roots in the explosive power of nationalism. But the Balkan problem has erupted with new vehemence, becoming almost a synonym for the foreign policy challenges that now confront the United States as the world's sole superpower. Over the last few decades, other European ethnic quarrels that once grabbed the attention of the world - such as the conflicts between France and Germany or Hungary and Romania - either have been solved or faded from the headlines. The 20th century is ending as it began - with ethnic war in the Balkans and the world's statesmen wringing their hands over a region that is fully living up to its traditional nickname, "the tinderbox of Europe." ![]()
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