Ariel Rusila's Conflicts [Ex-BalkanPerspective]

Serbia’s application to join the EU was finally made before X-mas. Early December EU foreign ministers agreed to unblock Serbia's interim trade agreement, which is part of Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA). Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro have been approved by EU for visa-free travel within the EU Schengen area from January 2010. (More in my article “ EU's visa-freedom dividing Balkans ”). While Serbia's pro-western government is committed to achieve EU membership same time in Serbia however anti-European feeling is growing and according some long time polls the number of those against cooperation with ICTY (Hague Tribunal) is on the rise again. EU-Serbia trade has been growing rapidly since 2000 and now the EU is Serbia's main trading partner. In 2007 exports and imports of goods and services to and from the EU increased to 56% of the country's total exports and 54% of its total imports, compared with 53% and 49% in 2006. However during 2009 the...

"After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home." ( Barack Obama ) “ They are coming already in coffins.” ( Ari Rusila ) US President Obama finally announced his new counter-insurgency (aka "Coin") strategy in Afghanistan – which continues mostly the strategy of his predecessor Mr. Bush. Generals and influential - if not decisive – military-industrial complex got what they want and once again USA is seeking military solution to mainly political problem. I am interested to see if the selected strategy can be implemented, against or for whom it is planed, what is the role of Europe in this game and whether there would be maybe better alternatives available. President Obama justified sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan at a cost of $30 billion a year. US mission is seize the initiative against a resurgent Taliban while building the capacity of Afghan forces so that American and NATO forces can gradually hand off security responsibilities to the Afgha...

As I can comment only about a tiny fraction of news about the issues of my interest I have launched a news portal for better coverage. My new “ Ari Rusila's Conflicts ” site – created with help and platform of NewsCred Ltd. – is loaded relevant multimedia content from over 2500 news sources and blogs. The topics are chiefly the same as my top interests in BalkanBlog and categories are following: Editorials (including my articles in BalkanBlog ) Balkans Caucasus Serbia Bosnia-Herzegovina Iran Crisis management Military-Industrial Complex Terrorism Afghanistan War Palestine-Israel Conflict Oil & Gas Ari Rusila's Conflicts -news portal can be found from address http://conflicts.newscred.com/