Populo Spring 2017

global scale. A successful response, it is claimed, must include the application of defensive strategies on an international scale. 271 An example of this is the Yugoslav Wars throughout the 1990 ’s. Due to globalisation and the scattering of ethnicities following the breakup of the Soviet Union, ethnic groups within each nation were considerably diverse, with many minority groups combining to form a highly multi- cultural state. Therefore, the ethnically motivated conflicts of a single state would soon spread across borders where similar confrontations would take place between minority groups, putting what President Clinton called “militant nationalism” into a disparaging practice. 272 The Bosnian War for example could well have spread across neighbouring Balkan states also encompassing Serbian and Croatian minorities. Following the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, 37% of Serbian origin resided in Bosnia, 32% within Montenegro, Croatia 5% and Serbia 66%, thus any confrontation involving Serbians within former Yugoslavia had devastating potential to spread. 273 Without decisive intervention within Operation Deliberate Force, the possibility of a northward escalation into Central and Eastern Europe would certainly be credible, leaving a very late UN intervention little hope of success. This is supported by Wayne Thompson’s research, outlining the support from many of Europe’s leading intellectuals for humanitarian military intervention in Bosnia for the fear of further humanitarian crisis, not for the imperialistic aims of Western nations. 274 271 Federal Ministry of Defence, ‘ White Paper 2006 on German Security Poli cy and the Future of the Bundeswehr’, Defense White Papers and National Security Strategies, (Germany, Federal Ministry of the Defence of Germany, 2006), pp. 5. 272 Jason Edwards, Navigating the Post-Cold War World: President Clinton's Foreign Policy Rhetoric, (Lexington Books, 16 Dec 2008), pp. 73. 273 Joseph Hobbs, World Regional Geography, (Cengage Learning, 13 Mar 2008), pp. 147. 274 Wayne Thompson, Western Europe 2014, (Rowman & Littlefield, 24 Jul 2014), pp. 141.

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