Folly and Failure in the Balkans
The sorry history of ethnic conflict in the Balkans, concluding that forgeign intervention has needlessly fanned the flames of nationalism.
Bismarck's opinion that the Balkans were not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier has long been heeded by hard-headed statesmen from Disraeli to Kissinger who warned against active involvement in the region. A sense of fatalism about the ability of local leaders and their populations to aspire to good government and 'civilised' conduct has long coloured Western policy towards south-east Europe.
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