yugoslavias implosion

that should be rapidly readmitted into the community of nations with
full access to international financial institutions and governing bodies.
And Koštunica was perceived as a true democrat. 484 Having misinterpreted
Milošević’s downfall as a rejection of his policy by the entire
Serbian nation, and hopeful that Serbia might soon realize its putative
democratic potential as a member of the European Union and
nato, Washington and Brussels turned a blind eye to the fact that Serbia
was transitioning not to a democratic state, but to a gangster state.
However, Serbia’s elites proved incapable of identifying modern values
(such as democracy and the rule of law) as national interests, and
instead continued to seek territorial expansion. Washington and Brussels
stood by while Belgrade worked to destabilize Kosovo and Bosnia,
to illegally partition northern Kosovo, and to vilify Albanians in the
international press as the only source of violence in the Balkans.
By doggedly pursuing the Greater Serbia project, Serbia’s elites
have brought the country to the brink of socioeconomic collapse. Since
Kosovo’s declaration of independence, the state of Serbia has been
actually giving up Kosovo step by step while disguising that process
with rhetoric to the contrary. The global financial crisis, which diminished
the flow of foreign aid to a bankrupt Serbia, has laid bare the reality
that Serbia does not have the capacity to manage Kosovo. Its
aspirations for partition are also becoming less and less realistic. It is
obvious that on its way to eu membership Serbia will have to recognize
regional realities, which includes an independent Kosovo. Serbia’s top
officials did not strongly campaign against Kosovar Serbs’ participation
in local elections in Kosovo in November 2009 and a considerable number
of Serbs in Central Kosovo went to the polls and thus became a constituent
part of Kosovo’s sociopolitical reality. However, Kosovo will
still play a role in the consciousness of Serbia as a part of its grievances
over lost territories. The amputation of Kosovo is not the problem in
itself; it is more that compensation in Bosnia was not achieved.
484 Koštunica was on Time magazine’s 2001 short list for Statesman of the Year .
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