Fire in the Balkans: The last Yugoslav war

It is a widespread opinion that the disintegration of Yugoslavia caused a war that was inevitable and that de facto, wars in the Balkans are a historical matter of fact, repeating themselves at more or less scheduled intervals. However a deeper analysis would reveal that this affirmation is far too precise a manner to abnegate responsibility from the political, cultural, intellectual and informed circles of the former Yugoslavia which brought the country to war. For these circles it is still useful today to cite the cursed nature of the Balkans and her inhabitants or everything that occurs today is seen as the inevitable repetition of history with the aid of many historical analogies. Many still maintain that these conflicts will repeat themselves perennially until there is a definitive solution to the national question, in which sense it is understood to be from the promoters of national objectives. Whilst there does exist, within the former Yugoslavia, a strong political need for these theses, they persist nevertheless within certain European political and intellectual circles as both explanations and excuses for the ineptity of the international community and also the lacking preventative measures taken with regard to the Yugoslavian conflict: a conflict that horrified the entire world not only for its ferocity and brutality but also for the intellectual attitudes shown. The tardiness of any reaction to the conflict may indeed be more easily explained bearing in mind the unavoidable conflict between Balkan peoples and states which logically brings indecision and lack of will in influencing or impeding any such type of conflict.