Milosevic presented many of his activities in a nationalist context. The moves toward "ethnic cleansing" were part of a larger campaign to solidify the new Yugoslavia as an ethnically homogenous Serb Christian state. The artificial order of Communism was going to be replaced by something of natural, domestic origin. The conflict between Christian and Muslim had been going on for centuries. Milosevic was merely attempting to achieve what others before him had not. Added to this particular brand of nativist reasoning was also the notion that Yugoslavia, along with other formerly communist Eastern European nations, should be permitted to govern its own affairs free of outside interference. At the time, in fact, many argued that a NATO intervention on the grounds of bringing a "better," democratic, and "more humanitarian" outlook to Yugoslavia, would only strengthen Milosevic's hand:
President Milosevic, who faced significant democratic opposition, can now pose as a defender of the Serbs' national integrity; the extreme nationalists and superannuated communists in Russia can portray NATO's actions as evidence of the west's arrogance and determination to humiliate their country.
NATO invasion could be linked to attempts on the part of the Western Bloc to expand its influence and control into Eastern Europe. The call for attacking the "barbarians" in Yugoslavia could redound to the detriment of true democrats and humanitarians. Russia, too, would not be pleased by direct Western intervention in its former sphere of influence.
The appeal to Slavic rights, on the part of Milosevic and his allies, would play well not only in Yugoslavia but in Russia with its long traditions of pan-Slavism. Russia, even in the days of the tsars had seen itself as the protector of Slavic peoples everywhere, and also of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Clinton's third rationale, that NATO must destroy Yugoslavia's ability to make war once more played to the nationalists in Yugoslavia and elsewhere. It could also easily be seen as stirring up anti-American, and anti-Western, sentiments in general. The United States was taking upon itself the role of "sole superpower," determining who could possess significant military capacity and who could not. Echoes of these arguments could be heard in the march to war in Iraq in 2002 and 2003. Opponents of NATO intervention could claim that countries had a right to decide for themselves whether to become part of the global order represented by the United States and its allies. American and NATO intervention would in this instance be but another outgrowth of Wilsonian interventionism - the empire of globalism that the forces of democracy and capitalism were endeavoring to impose on lands and peoples without such traditions or aspirations:
The American century was all about the separation of territorial and economic power; the rise of U.S. empire is premised on the disconnection between economy and politics understood in terms of the clearly demarcated arrangements of 'absolute' space."
American ideals were obliterating the older boundaries between nation-state and global community. In asserting their right to control the ethnic make-up and customs and laws of their nation, the Yugoslavians could be perceived as defending a long-standing system of international relations, one that pre-dated the two World Wars. Why shouldn't Yugoslavia be permitted to fashion its own destiny?
A similar argument could be applied within NATO itself. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was designed specifically to fight the threat of Soviet-sponsored Communism. Its very name implied the restriction of its activities to those territories fronting the North Atlantic Ocean. Though its membership had already been expanded in the days of the Cold War to include states, such as Turkey, that did not fit the geographical definition of the organization, its mission had, nevertheless; remained the same. Many could, and did, ask why an alliance the purpose of which was to prevent Communist aggression was now going to undertake military action against a minor state the activities of which did not present a direct threat to any of NATO's members. President Clinton sought a way around these objections,
By June 1998 [he]... was referring to the Kosovo crisis as not simply a humanitarian challenge and a foreign policy problem, but as also "an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security [...] of the United States." At the same time, politically powerful imagery from the past, especially...
This gave NATO the pretext to engage in the Yugoslav conflicts, but it did not do so until 1995. In the intervening years, NATO used primarily diplomatic means of dealing with the situation. The organization at this point was assisting the United Nations, and eventually took at the role of enforcing sanctions against the combatants. During this time, the conflict continued unabated, as the sanctions had only nominal impact.
Intervention of States and Human Rights When and how should States intervene in the affairs of other States with poor human rights records? What threshold of violations has to be corssed first? Who decides when it has been crossed? The sovereignty of states remains paramount and as recognized in the UN Charter. However, other states may surpass the sovereignty clause in cases of gross human rights violations by the host state. For
International Norms Such as the R2P (Right to Protect) Conflict with the Cultural Claims of Individual States in Matters of Human Rights? The objective of this study is to answer as to whether international norms such as the R2P conflict with the cultural claims of individual states in matters of human rights. It is reported that there has been a failure of the world in protecting victims of "mass atrocities" and
Introduction The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established in 1949 as part of the post-war effort among the nations of the West to work together to establish the peace. Throughout the Cold War, NATO was more of a symbol than an actual military alliance. It was not until the Cold War ended that the first joint military NATO operations were conducted. The first was in 1990 and the second in
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