yugoslavias implosion

epressing its people in Europe at the end of the 20th century.” 436 u.s.
secretary of state Madeleine Albright, the main promoter of nato
intervention, based her justification on experiences in Bosnia, claiming
that “regional conflict would undermine nato’s credibility as the
guarantor of peace and stability in Europe. This would pose a threat
that America could not ignore.” 437
Many pro-nato interventionists believed that the use of force
would guarantee that all countries would respect a certain minimum
of ethical standards. In his essay “Kosova and the End of the Nation-
State,” Vaclav Havel wrote that nato placed
human rights above the rights of [the] state. The fry was attacked by
the alliance without a direct mandate from the un. This did not happen
irresponsibly, as an act of aggression or out of disrespect for international
law. It happened, on the contrary, out of respect for the law,
for a law that ranks higher than the law which protects the sovereignty
of states. The alliance has acted out of respect for human rights, as both
conscience and international legal documents dictate. 438
Russia was bothered by nato’s eastern expansion, and Russia’s
reaction to the Kosovo crisis was partly motivated by internal considerations,
above all the unstable situation in Chechnya and the
fear of separatist movements at home. The prospect of a humanitarian
intervention alarmed the Russians, who feared similar action on
their own territory or in neighboring countries where Russia had
special interests, such as Georgia and Azerbaijan, as well as Armenia
and Moldova, countries that had been given support at the nato
summit in April 1999 marking the fiftieth anniversary of the alliance.
436 http://www .pbs .org/newshour/bb/europe/jan-june99/solana_3–23 .html
437 USIS Washington File, February 4, 1999 .
438 The New York Review of Books, Volume XLVI, Number 10, June 10, 1999,
Vaclav Havel “Kosovo and the End of the Nation-State”
247
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