Major Conflicts after WWII
and Attempts to make PeaceRacial Conflicts in the
Balkans
Ricardo K. S. Mak
Hong Kong Baptist University
A Definition of Nation
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A nation contains at least two
elements: a culture and a political
organization. Without a culture, a
mass of people cannot develop into
a coherent group. On the other side,
an ill-organized cultural group is
fragile (Kulturnation and Staatsnation,
Friedrich Meinecke)
The Uneven Development of Culture
and Political Organization
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The culture and the political organization of a
people seldom develop at the same speed. For
instance, the German culture flowered in the
18th century, long before a German state was
founded. On the other side, although the
nation-state of France was built in the 12th
century, the French people continued to search
for their national identity in the next seven
hundred years.
Nation Building
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Nation building means, thus, the
creation of a national culture and /or
a political form for a particular group
of people. It is usually carried out by
a national core group
A National Core Group has
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A common collective noun (French, Britons,
Germans, etc.)
A belief in a common ancestor
a collective memory (great disaster, war, etc.
a homeland or at least a belief in sharing a
common homeland
common cultural symbols (languages, feasts,
flags, etc.)
A coherent organization
Major Manifestations of Nation
Building
The Search for National Identity
(Britain and France)
 National Unification (Italy and
Germany)
 National Separatism (the Balkan
States)
 Reformist Nationalism (Russia)
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Facilitators of Nation-building
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Elite
State power
National education
Mass media
Factors that determine
interactions between nations:
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Realist considerations
Mutual perceptions
Traditions and historical factors
Institutional constraints
Political Realism
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Interest and security
Power
Geopolitics
Strengths
Domestic political and economic needs
Who, e.g. the USA, the EU or Russia
would be more interested in the Balkans?
Mutual Perception
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Uncle Sam
The polar bear
The brutal Serbs
Historical and Ideological
Factors
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Wars and conflicts
Allies or foes
Collaborators or
competitors
“isms”
Institutional Constraints
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Diplomatic pattern and consensus
Treaties and conventions
International laws
International organizations
Basic Settings of the ExYugoslavia in the late 1980s
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Racial Composition of Yugoslavia: Serbs, Croats,
Muslims, Albanians, etc
The six republics and the Federation: Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia,
Montenegro and Macedonia
The ruling structure: long regime founded upon
charismatic leaders and narrow-based elite
(Romania, Bulgaria, etc., too)
Command economy with emphasis on heavy
industries
The Early 1990s
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The new election of 1990
The birth of race-based politics
The military and economic position of Serbia
The dissolution of the Soviet economic
system and its impacts on the Yugoslav
successor states
EC (later EU), the USA and
Russia
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EC’s basic principle: to preserve the pre-Yugoslavia and to
give successor states more democracy
EC’s geopolitical considerations (priority to Czechoslovakia,
Hungary and Poland)
Helmut Sonnenfeldt, top aide of Kissenger, said in 1975, “it
ought actually to promote the preservation of the Soviet order.”
The Crisis in Iraq
Gorbachev’s Fate
Britain, Italy and Germany
The Outburst in June 1991
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Both Slovenia and Croatia declared themselves independent states
on June 25, 1991 and defeated the Yugoslavian Liberation Army
The Serbs in Croatia (15% of the Croatian population), who were
supported by Belgrade, reacted radically to the policy of “a state for
the Croats” and war continued
While the EC proposed a three-month freeze on implementation of
their independence declarations so as to buy time for negotiation, a
German-Italian initiative to deploy a Western European Union’s force
to separate the combatants was blocked by Britain
The Tough Stand of the Croats
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The overrated Serbian Army
The Peter Carrington Plan of a Federation
of Yugoslav sovereign states, which was
accepted by Serbia and Montenegro only
The arm embargo that aimed at localizing
the war hurt Croatia only
The siege of Dubrovnik
The Inner Contradiction of the
Western Camp
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Washington’s opposition to a NATO peacekeeping mission
The intensification of war
The Battle of Vukovar
Germany’s initiative in December 1991 that
forced the EC to follow
Slovenia and Croatia were recognized by
the EC on January 15, 1992
Powder Keg Bosnia
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The biggest republic with the most complicated
population structure (17.3% Croats, 31.4% Serbs,
43.7% Muslims and 5.5% Yugoslavs)
Bosnian Serbs’ connection with Belgrade
The Bosnian Muslims and the Muslim world
Urban Bosnia vs. rural Bosnia
Obstacles to the formation of a multi-cultural civic
culture
The founding of the Muslim-based SDA (Party of
Democratic Action) and the Serb-based SDS
(Serbian Democratic Party)
The First Confrontation
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The Bosnians asked for EC recognition in December
1991
The Bosnian Serb responded by setting up the Serb
Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina on December 21, 1991
EC’s cantonization plan in April 1992 and the outbreak of
war on April 2, 1992
War and War Crime in Bosnia
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EC and the USA recognized the Bosnian Republic
The Role of Slobodan Milosevic
Serbian actions in Bosnia
Ethnic Cleansing, “ridding an area of a national
group regarded as undesirable in order to create
an ethnically homogeneous region.”
Mass rape and execution
Four weeks after the outbreak of the war, 280,000
people were made refugees
Western Response
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The arrival of the 36,000 UNPROFOR on
June 8, 1992
A military or humanitarian issue?
Election year in the USA
France’s concern over its Muslim community
Germany and Britain
Refugees: A Problem that upset
European Powers
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Geneva Conference July 1992
London Conference August 1992
Cyrus Vance and David Owen
The USA, the United Nations and the
Resolution 827 that founded the International
Tribunal for War Crimes
Lord Carrington, “Everyone is to blame for
what is happening in Bosnia and as soon as
we get a ceasefire there will be no need to
blame anybody,” “They are all impossible
people…all as bad as each other.”
1993: A Turning Point
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Bill Clinton’s presidency
Britain’s calculation
The Vance-Owen plan
A Futile Plan that intensified
Racial Conflicts
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Serbs in Bosnia rejected the plan
Croats turned against Muslims
The tragic fate of Mostar
Clinton under Pressure
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“The United States should take the lead in
seeking United Nations Security Council’s
authorization for air strike against those who
are attacking the relief effort. The United
States should be prepared to lend appropriate
military support to that operation.”
Clinton’s concerns
Criticisms on the one side and the Vietnam
syndrome on the other
Continuous War and Continuous
War Crimes
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The Siege of Sarajevo (April 1992 – Feb., 1996)
The rise of war gangster, “The Ukrainians are the
masters, trading in cigarettes, alcohol, cars, petrol
and women…The French specialize in wine, cocacola, gold and sex.”
The war-hardened Bosnian Muslims fought back
by organizing the Army of the Republic of Bosnia
and Herzegovina
The helpless UNPROFOR
More Complicated than ever
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The first NATO air strike on April 10, 1994
Russia stepped in
Bosnian Serbs stood in the way of another round of
negotiation
The growing difference between Europe and the
USA
Fortunately, the Muslim world did not involve much
The Making of the Dayton
Agreement
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Continuous military confrontation in
Bosnia
The tough stand of the new NATO
commander Rupert Smith
Srebrenica Massacre on July 10, 1995
Bill’s search for new success
The Dayton Agreement on December
14,1995