Friday, February 29, 2008

The Logic of Kosovan Independence


Funny things happen when provinces declare independence. Other provinces start down the same path.

Perhaps it's too early in the process to hear such a call quite yet, but when US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns is forced to comment on calls for Kosovo's northern, Serb-dominated enclaves to break away and join with Serbia proper, you know that a nationalist genie has been let out of the diplomatic bottle.

"We absolutely oppose the partition of Kosovo. And a great majority of countries around the world are not going to stand for that" announced the Secretary.

Quite right. Such a move would require a unilateral declaration of independence by the provinces of Leposavic, Zvecan and Zubin Potok and the fragmentation of a European nation state along ethnic lines, something the US and Britain would never agree to.

Ahmm.






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