War Crime Hypocrisy

Posted by AriRusila on 30/12/10

Related to Serbia’s EU association process nearly every progress report of European Commission highlights Serbia’s cooperation with Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Although the country has demonstrated its commitment to moving closer to the EU by building up a track record in implementing the provisions of the Interim Agreement with the EU and [...]

Will Negotiation Slot for Kosovo be used?

Posted by AriRusila on 09/11/10

When UN made new Kosovo related decision on September 2010 it was believed that resolution would enable a dialogue for resolving this frozen conflict. With minimal preconditions new direct talks between Belgrad and Pristina and a possible deal between local stakeholders could open the way for sustainable solution. However resent events have have resulted in [...]

Rethinking needed after Bosnian elections

Posted by AriRusila on 10/10/10

In my earlier article – Bosnia on the road to the EU, sorry to Dissolution – I described a bit the background and made some small forecast about outcome which seems to be not so far away from reality. Now elections are held and most votes counted. Turnout in the vote — the sixth general [...]

Balkan Route – Business as usual

Posted by AriRusila on 10/07/10

Transnational organized crime is considered as one of the major threats to human security, impeding the social, economic, political and cultural development of societies worldwide. It is a multi-faceted phenomenon and has manifested itself in different activities, among others, drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings; trafficking in firearms; smuggling of migrants; money laundering; etc. In [...]

Peace Rank: Balkans and Eastwards

Posted by AriRusila on 14/06/10

Peace is the essential prerequisite to solve global challenges, such as climate change, decreasing biodiversity, lack of fresh water and overpopulation. The organization Vision of Humanity published its fourth edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI) and in this article I cover peace rankings in Balkans and Eastwards based of new report. The Global Peace [...]

Peacemaking – how about solving Conflicts too?

Posted by AriRusila on 26/05/10

“The only way to solve a conflict at any level of society is to sit down face to face and talk about it.” (John W. McDonald) A new peace mediation study , that states Finland’s accomplishment in the field of mediation and conflict prevention, was released on Thursday, May 6, 2010 by the Ministry for [...]

Freedom 2010 in Balkans and Eastwards

Posted by AriRusila on 02/05/10

“Freedom of the press, freedom of association, the inviolability of domicile, and all the rest of the rights of man are respected so long as no one tries to use them against the privileged class. On the day they are launched against the privileged they are overthrown.” (Prince Peter Kropotkin) Different aspects of freedom are [...]

Kosovo: Two years of Quasi-state

Posted by AriRusila on 20/02/10

“US recognition of severed Kosovo province was a serious mistake, leading to an escalation of tensions, instead of calming down the situation in the Balkans … consensus boils down to the fact that nobody knows where Kosovo is” (John Bolton) “The recognition of Kosovo was premature and conditioned by great pressure from the former American [...]

Croatians voted for Change

Posted by AriRusila on 14/01/10

The last election in Croatia can bring a refreshing change with new President Ivo Josipovic – a university law professor and a composer of classical music – but he will find a much tougher struggle ahead of him. This struggle not only due economical problems (national debt and unemployment) but also problems related to Croatia’s [...]

Yemen – the next target for the War on Terror?

Posted by AriRusila on 07/01/10

“Somebody in our government said to me in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, Iraq was yesterday’s war. Afghanistan is today’s war. If we don’t act pre-emptively, Yemen will be tomorrow’s war.” (Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn.) On December 25 US authorities arrested a Nigerian named Abdulmutallab aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from to on charges of [...]

AriRusila's BalkanPerspective rss

Welcome to AriRusila's BalkanPerspective – a personal perspective on events in western Balkans. Topics of interest: Serbia, Kosovo province, EU enlargement, ICO/EUSR, Eulex, UN peacekeeping operations, western Balkans, crisis management more.



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