De-Balkanizing the Balkans – A Look Back with Questions

–– Rejoinder, 15 Years Later ––
In the year 2000, in the immediate aftermath of NATO’s military operation in former Yugoslavia, I wrote an article claiming that it would be the success of the reconstruction of the region that would define the historical legitimacy of NATO’s intervention, conducted in the absence of a UN Security Council resolution; that the internal weakness and dysfunctionality of the Balkan states were the major threat to the security of the region; and that neither democratisation nor European integration could be substitutes for proper state-building in the region. Fifteen years later, most of these observations still remain valid for me, the rest look trivial. […]