Tensions nationales et menace sur la sécurité dans les Balkans

Abstract

Nationalist Tensions Menace Balkan Security, by Paul Lendvai The Balkan peninsula has regained its traditional role as the tinder-box of Europe and the crucible of nationalist and populist ideas. The nationalist problems of the Balkan states are more acute now than at the tinte of Communist accession to power 45 years ago. Political instability and the tendency to play on national sentiments to gain popular support have contributed to the disintegration of the region. In Yugoslavia, the postwar federal and political structures set up by Tito hâve been destroyed and the situation poses a grave threat to security and coopération. In Hungary, the collapse of the Communist régime and a strong national-populist tendency within the présent government have transformed legitimate concern for the fate of three and a half million ethnie Hungarians living in neighbouring countries into a highly sensitive political issue. In Bulgaria, regional coopération, security and stability are also threatened by nationalist hostility against the Turkish mino-rity. The Balkans and the entire Eastern and South Eastern European region are experiencing tribalisation and nationalist splintering. It therefore looks as if the creation of a new European order is still a utopian dream.