The seeds of his Ukraine conflict were visible in the wars in former Yugoslavia, Dr Philip Cunliffe writes in UnHerd
Dr Philip Cunliffe writes in UnHerd drawing comparisons between the current Russain-Ukrainian conflict with the wars in former Yugoslavia, in the 1990’s:
‘Despite their distance in time and space, not to mention qualitative differences of magnitude and geopolitical significance, the conflicts in Ukraine and Bosnia nonetheless remain entangled. Fundamental questions that have surfaced over the past month — over European strategic autonomy, Germany’s status as a great power, multipolarity and the role of Nato expansion — all emerged with the war in Bosnia.’
The Bosnian war that finally shattered the Socialist Federal republic of Yugoslavia, started 30 years ago this week.
‘The war in Bosnia and the brutality that defined it shattered the Long Peace that had prevailed in Europe since the end of the Second World War. Today, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has had a similarly shattering effect on a public that seems to have forgotten the wars in former Yugoslavia. Such collective amnesia — which also omits the bloody Greek Civil War that ended in 1949 — evinces a peculiar Eurocentrism, which treats European territory as if it were holy soil consecrated for perpetual peace by European blood, and as if Europe’s bloody history of internecine war makes war less rather than more likely.’