Tuesday, 02.19.08
Some damn thing in the Balkans
Daniel Mihailescu/AFP Getty Images
The dismemberment of Serbia proceeds apace, and Kosovars are rejoicing, just as Montenegrins did in June 2006. The Serbs' displeasure could make sense, even from a disinterested, anti-nationalist point of view: not every minority in every country needs its own UN-approved fiefdom, and peacefully sharing land with dissimilar neighbors seems, to my cosmopolitanist taste, praiseworthy.
But no Kosovar can be expected to entrust her well-being to the cosmopolitan talents of the Serbs, whose most fraternal gesture since independence has been not to wage war against Kosovo.
More worrisome, though, is Kosovo's potential to embolden quasi-states that have much less reason to fear their mother-states. Abkhazia has suffered under Tbilisi, and North Cyprus under the Greek-EU embargo. Neither of these has the case that Kosovo does -- not yet, anyway.
Get used to itRoger Cohen calls Kosovo's independence, "justified, unique, and unavoidable." |
Simple statehoodGary Bass argues that we need universal standards for statehood. |
Gates of ViennaCroat John Zmirak sees independence as a sign of the swallowing of Europe by the Mohammedan hordes. |
