(3) The first European intervention in Yugoslavia resulted in the collapse of the Yugoslav federation. The decision to recognize Slovenia and, more importantly, Croatia, meant that the war was then transferred to Bosnia and Herzegovina. With regard to the European Union’s initial approach, one author assessed the performance of its leaders as highly immature: However much the EC leaders liked to think in the long term – charting the future of a continent like master mariners setting forth on the great ocean – the leaders of the Twelve proved remarkably lacking in foresight when it came to anticipating events in the Balkans. Not only were they taken by surprise by the flare-up of fighting in Slovenia, but they refused to be distracted from each fresh outbreak of violence to consider the big picture. For instance, already in July 1991 the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina was so alarmed by the scale of the fighting along its north-western borders inside Croatia and the involvement of JNA and militias based in Bosnia that it asked the EC to engage in preventive diplomacy … The Twelve displayed sovereign contempt for Sarajevo’s attempt to distract them from their central preoccupation … Buffeted by the high tide of history, the Twelve continued according to routines better suited to calmer waters.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 07:32:32 +0000
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