The Wages Of Kosovo

Perhaps they can also let the Szekely into NATO after independence.  Actually, they are currently seeking autonomy, but these things often don’t stop there.  As someone who is part Hungarian, I can’t say that I am entirely indifferent to the concerns of Hungarian minorities outside Hungary, but it is very risky to start going down this road of increased autonomy, especially when there is no question of Romania going along with it.  I appreciate James pointing out this story.  It seems that we are still at odds on how significant these stirrings of autonomist and separatist feeling will be.  Perhaps I have been lecturing on the Balkan Wars too much over the past few months, but when I see autonomist and separatist movements gaining momentum I am fairly confident that these movements will reach a point where the Great Powers cannot stop them from taking action.  The Powers ultimately have two means at their disposal, force and incentives, and nationalists tend to reject the latter and resent the former.  James’ confidence in a new concert of Powers also does not take into account the possibility that one or more of them will blunder or deliberately stoke a separatist cause for short-term gain (as the West just did in Kosovo, except that we didn’t gain anything from it).  Currently, Russia and China are playing the role of guardians of the existing international state system against the Western states that want to throw wrenches into it, and this is a very, very bad arrangement for rather obvious reasons.