Those who described Russia’s military mobilisations as the gravest threat of war in Europe for more than 75 years neglected, intentionally or not, the some 100,0000 lives lost during the bloodshed that occurred during the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
Thirty years on, it is this same area, now referred to as the Western Balkans, which remains vulnerable to contagion from the crises in eastern Europe. As Russia accelerates its invasion of Ukraine, there are mounting concerns about other challenges to a security architecture that, though imperfect, has largely stabilised a key part of Europe.
As with Ukraine, the European Union’s nonchalance towards the clear and present dangers facing the Western Balkans has served only to hack away at the previously uncontested faith in its policies that adherents to its path had almost dogmatically upheld. Bosnia-Herzegovina is facing a resurgence of secessionist tendencies, while attempts to normalise relations between Serbia and Kosovo have hit the rocks. The EU’s leverage is not what it once was, nor indeed is that of the US; the stains of the Trump years proving hard to erase.
