Ariel Rusila's Conflicts [Ex-BalkanPerspective]

Note: My article was originally published on August 30, 2010 as OP-ED in a collaborative project to create recommendations for NATO’s new Strategic Concept by Atlantic-Community.Org (open think tank). Ari RUSILA: Rather than providing for collective defense, today’s Alliance is invited to join American wars. Instead of scribbling a new Strategic Concept for NATO that will preserve the dominant position of the US, it might be wiser for European states to develop a New Security Structure within the EU to replace the Cold War relic. During last sixty years, the security environment and NATO's role within it have both changed considerably. Threats are more diverse, as the main enemy of the Alliance disappeared in the 1990s. An attack in North America or Europe by the army of an outside state is highly unlikely. Instead of providing for collective defense, NATO is invited to fight US wars by attacking sovereign states. While experts are busy planning the new Strategic Concept,...

Thousands of people across several Balkan countries have held services last week to commemorate those who died in Operation Storm 15-years ago. Like normal in Balkans the views what happened are almost opposite to each other. One side is celebrating victory, the other side has remembrance of those who died during the largest refugee crisis since Holocaust before Kosovo. The focal point was Republic of Serbian Krajina, a country or separatist region on the borderline of today's Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, which existence came to an end August 1995. In Croatia, August 4 is celebrated as a Victory Day and Homeland Thanksgiving Day, as well as Veterans Day. Croatia's Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor headed a delegation of high-ranking officials at Zagreb central cemetery to mark the military operation carried out by forces from her country and Bosnia and Herzegovina to retake areas of Croatia claimed by ethnic Serbs. She said on Wednesday the operation had been “a victory...

Besides tribe leaders in Pristina also many separatist movements in Somaliland, Palestine, Abkhasia, South-Ossetia, Transdnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh and even Basks in Spain have been celebreting ICJ's opinion on Kosovo. However the life in Kosovo probably will continue without dramatic change. Whatever – depending point of view – status Kosovo has, the province is de facto administrated by international community. After "humanitarian intervention" and billions of squandered euros Kosovo is a quasi-independent pseudo-state with good change to become next “failed” or “captured” state. Official economy will be subvented with massive international aid, private economy will still be based to drug- and trafficking money (e.g. “Balkan Route – Business as usual” ), Nato troops secure that Kosovo Albanians are not killing too much members of minority communities, Pristina government tries to act with civilized manners, Serbs see their province still as an occupied territory. (...

Transnational organized crime is considered as one of the major threats to human security, impeding the social, economic, political and cultural development of societies worldwide. It is a multi-faceted phenomenon and has manifested itself in different activities, among others, drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings; trafficking in firearms; smuggling of migrants; money laundering; etc. In particular drug trafficking is one of the main activities of organized crime groups, generating enormous profits. (UNODC) The World Drug Report 2010 , issued on June 2010 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), shows that even drug cultivation is declining in Afghanistan (for opium) and the Andean countries (coca), and drug use has stabilized in the developed world, the famous Balkan route still facilitates a lucrative business. Some 85 mt (metric tn) goes vie Balkan route to western Europe markets. What is significant for Balkan route that other transit regions – Iran ...