Comments on: Kosovo Declares Independence

By: Geoffrey

Geoffrey — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:37:14 +0000

the Serbian government’s walking a tightrope

In a nutshell, yes.

By: exholt

exholt — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 23:49:38 +0000

Oops….I meant “The first point is especially bad.” My apologies.

By: exholt

exholt — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 23:32:39 +0000

1 – Is the Serbian people and not be seen to be complicit in the disintegration of Serbia and the loss of Kosovo, the “spiritual home” of the Serb people.
2 – Serbia’s long-term ambition to be part of the EU.

Russia does not wish to see Serbia go from Russian sphere-of-influence to Europe’s sphere-of-influence.

Judging by your two points, it seems the Serbian government’s walking a tightrope between attempting to join the EU with all its accompanying potential advantages and ensuring it is not seen by the more nationalistic-minded Serbian citizenry and their Russian supporters as effective puppets/collaborators of the US/NATO/UN.

The second is especially bad as I’ve seen some parallels between how Serbian nationalists perceive the US/Nato/UN and how many nationalistic-minded Chinese perceive the US/Japan on the Taiwan Independence issue.*

* Complicated by the fact the “Taiwan Nationalists” themselves are analogous to “native” White Americans in the US…..an issue underscored when the Taiwanese Independence-minded Vice-President Annette Lu offended Taiwanese Aborigines by publicly calling for their being relocated to Central/South America a few years back.

By: bittergradstudent

bittergradstudent — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:44:28 +0000

I found it interest that, with significantly less fanfar than Russia and Serbia, Spain is out there, expressing solid opposition to Kosovo, too, having their own Basque scapegoat.

By: tannenburg

tannenburg — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:22:39 +0000

What I find fascinating is that nearly a century after the Balkan quagmire which resulted in a series of minor wars (Austria-Hungary vs. Russia vs. the disintegrating Ottoman Empire vs. the Greeks vs. Rumania vs. Bulgaria, etc. etc.) and ultimately the assassination which sparked the First World War problems in that area are still intense enough to bring other nations into conflict. Yugoslavia was created out of the ashes of the fallen empires of the First World War…an artificial creation cobbled together because the dignitaries of the Versailles Treaties (most specifically France and Britain) did not think smaller, more nationally-homogeneous states to be viable.

And now we have another small Balkan state becoming a point of “Great Power” contention, with Russia playing its accustomed role as the father-protector to all good minor Slavic states versus the meddling West.

History doesn’t repeat itself, but sources of conflict endure. If anyone is curious about the genesis of some of the most intense inter-ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, I would suggest exploring the “puppet” states created by the Italians and Nazi Germany in the region during the Second World War and how their excesses justified the Serbian-dominated backlash which surrounded the formation of Tito’s reconstituted Yugoslavia.

By: Geoffrey

Geoffrey — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:25:40 +0000

Well Jill, there are two key concerns for the Serbian government:
1 – Is the Serbian people and not be seen to be complicit in the disintegration of Serbia and the loss of Kosovo, the “spiritual home” of the Serb people.
2 – Serbia’s long-term ambition to be part of the EU.

Russia does not wish to see Serbia go from Russian sphere-of-influence to Europe’s sphere-of-influence.

Also we should remember that Kosovo is not truly independent in the strictest sense, and that the EU (and, I believe, its partners – such as the USA) are committing a lot of money and effort to Kosovo. An 1800 man mission and a 15000 man military presence is no small effort. And that is just the front, in the background the countries involved have numerous public servants involved in the deployment and maintenance of these missions.

Another consideration is that Kosovan independence breaks international laws to which USA, UK and every EU nation signed up to. Of course, invading Afghanistan and Iraq to topple regimes break UN laws too. So we have a strong precedent in the past 6 years of international law being redefined when it suits the USA and the UK – and not done on international consensus.
This does not make the actions of the USA and the UK morally wrong – just illegal under UN mandates. And, of course, Russia’s treatment to British Council in Russia also breaks the rules. So there’s a lot of tit-for-tat in politics at the moment. (There always will be).

The immediate concerns for Kosovo must be the 600k Serbs there. Presumably they do not wish to live under an Albanian state?

By: oljb

oljb — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:01:37 +0000

Jill,
I don’t imagine Russia will shut up. While obviously I’m sure that Kosovo irks the Russians because of the similarity to the Chechen conflict (not to mention dozens of other potential conflicts with ethnic groups that find themselves inside Russia’s borders) they are certainly not too principled to return the geopolitical favor when it comes to the various Russian enclaves throughout the former USSR.
Not that the prospects of resolving the disputes between Abkhazia/South Ossetia and Georgia or Transnistria and Moldova were likely in the first place, but Kosovo’s independance is a greenlight to Russia making permanent oblasts in those countries. It seems to me like the Western powers have simply decided to write off the Western-leaning majorities in those two countries when both ought to be aggressively courted for EU membership and saved from a fate of permanent subservience to Russia. That prospect may be completely squandered now.
Kosovo has its own interests and its people can’t necessarily be expected to sacrifice their own aspirations for the sake of Moldovans and Georgians, but I personally wish that a more diplomatically palatable solution could have been finessed here- like UN backed self-rule, with Kosovo nominally remaining part of Serbia. This is exactly the solution that Moldova and Georgia are trying to accomplish with their own breakaway areas.

By: D.N. Nation

D.N. Nation — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:44:50 +0000

America’s right-wing has short attention spans…elsewise I’d expect them to start flapping their gums in disrespect over this. Remember: These idiots don’t want Kosovo to be independent, as Ooh Scary Muslims. So they’d rather see a Slobbo M. back in place, even if he would be supported by both the Russians AND A.N.S.W.E.R.- thus reminding us all that batshittiness from the left and right holds hands behind the ass of the world.

By: Morningstar

Morningstar — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:38:38 +0000

this actually gets to the crux of many international problems. for one thing, it glaringly highlights the inadequacy of the UN in it’s current form, you can’t have any legitimacy when five permanent members have the ability to veto anything that is against their national interests and you can’t have any legitimacy if you lack the ability to enforce your rules and laws.

the UN is essentially a non-entity at this point.

kosovo’s statehood wasn’t agreed upon by the UN, yet western nations seem to be backing it up. i’m sure they’ll get their way, since serbia wants to get into the EU, and NATO is sitting there, but there really needs to be a new framework for international law before this entire “right to self determination” thing goes any more to hell.

you really can have a domino effect with this.

By: Matthew Cole

Matthew Cole — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:25:18 +0000

The concerns for the safety of Serbs in Kosovo are most definitely over-pronounced by Serbian nationalists, but I agree with both oljb and Jill that there are real grievances there. It’s heartening though, that Kosovo’s prime minister has promised a platform of equal opportunity, accommodation and affirmative action for Serbs in Kosovo. I’d like to think that this stems from an understanding of oppression and marginalization in an ethnic state, but it could just as well be motivated by a desire to placate Serbia. Either way though, what will matter is if these policies are carried out, not the amount of idealism that motivates them. I read on a CNN article that there are plan to establish a federal office for minority rights, so hopefully that comes through.

I also want to say that I’m sympathetic to oljb’s point about the infinite regression of nationalism. This move will have repercussions across Europe. I feel particularly uneasy about right-wing elements in Republika Srpska (the near-entirely-Serb half of Bosnia-Herzegovina crafted by genocide and codified by Dayton) and what thoughts of secession this could prompt. I’d hate to see Bosnia torn apart again. This fear, like oljb’s, I think captures a lot of what makes nationalism so difficult to handle – the repulsion at atrocities committed in the name of nationalism runs up against the sense of solidarity with those whose suffering could have been staved off if they had greater political self-determination (Israel is a paradigmatic case). The good liberal multiculturalist/pluralist in me says that I should hold out hope that multi-ethnic rule can work for minorities, but the specific history of Kosvo’s Albanians makes me question the applicability of those values.