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A Violent Century of Conflict Begins and Ends
in the Balkans
The Battle for the Balkans: Where Is It Leading?
Why are the Balkans such a trouble spot? What's behind the current conflict?
by Melvin Rhodes
A major conflict of the early 20th
century began with an assassination by a Serbian nationalist in the Balkans. This
century is concluding with a devastating war in the same region. This says a great
deal about the 20th century and bodes ill for the 21st.
But ethnic groups all over the globe are fighting each other, not just in the Balkans.
It's no wonder that schoolchildren get confused. In two world wars the United States
and Britain supported the Serbs, with the help of the Russians and the French, against
Germany and other powers. This time, although the Russians still support Serbia,
the NATO allies are bombing key Serbian targets in an attempt to resolve the ethnic-religious
conflict in Kosovo.
Now Germany stands alongside America, Britain and France in opposition to Serbia.
The Chinese have switched sides, from support of Albania against Yugoslavia 10 years
ago to support of Serbia (the dominant power in Yugoslavia).
Ten years ago it was almost impossible for Americans or Britons to visit Albania,
although neighboring Yugoslavia benefited from a thriving tourist trade that attracted
Western visitors. Today the United States and Britain support the Albanians against
the Yugoslavs.
In the 1990s, in less than one decade, the United States and its Western allies have
gone from opposing Russia under communism to supporting Russia as it tried democracy
to squabbling with Russia over Serbia and other issues. We are talking here only
about a part of Europe. Similar contradictions and confusion reign in other parts
of the world.
Some of the countries involved in these situations have changed their names, which
adds to the confusion.
Can we make sense of what's taking place in the Balkans?
Recent History
These perplexing developments are directly the result of the collapse of communism.
Most of Eastern Europe was communist under the control of the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia,
with no border in common with the Soviet Union, could and did assert its independence
and pursued a more liberal line than other communist nations. President Josip Broz
Tito (1892-1980) was the founder of the postwar communist nation of Yugoslavia and
managed to hold the various ethnic groups in the country together until his death.
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