Western Europe balance-of-power theories are likely to return to favour not
only as explanations, but also as prescriptions.
Balkans
The viewing of the Balkans as a region of political instability, corruption,
economic and social backwardness, and irreconcilable internal social schisms
based on religious or ethnic rivalry, is not a recent one. In the late 19th century
it was the Balkans which were, rightly as it turned out, regarded as the powder
keg which could ignite Europe; they did, in August 1914. In geopolitical terms
the Balkans refers to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia,
Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Slovenia, and the remainder of the former
Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro. It is, indeed, a socially divided region,
with Roman Catholic and OrthodoxChristianity, andIslam, all much more
powerful as motivating forces than religion is in most of the rest of Europe.
There are at least eight major languages spoken in the region. It is a very poor
region, not only because it failed to keep up with the technical changes that
Europe underwent from the 19th century onwards, but because it suffered
even more than other regions that fell under communist domination after
- In many ways the Balkans today are in a time warp. Authoritarian
control of one political colour or another has been dominant ever since the
First World War, and little development of the social or cultural fabric often
calledcivil society—thought to be required for liberal democracy—took
place until the collapse of the communist bloc in 1989. It remains an area of
fiercenationalismand cultural enmity, with an alienated and suspicious
populace lacking almost all faith in politics of any kind. Polls regularly find a
complete lack of trust in political institutions or the State. What all the Balkan
countries have in common is a lengthy period of rule by the Ottoman Empire
from roughly the 15th century until the end of the 19th century. During this
period, when other European countries were slowly developing the institu-
tions and cultures of liberal politics, no intellectual or social progress took
place, except among very small Westernized e ́lites. Nor was there industrial
change: until at least the 1960s these societies were entirely agrarian-based.
Not surprisingly, there is a tendency today to deny that the Balkans as so
portrayed ever existed, to insist that it is a Western conception which covers
great diversity and presents a simplistic analysis. Consequently the very label is
becoming unfashionable, to be replaced with ‘South-East Europe’. Never-
theless, much of the Western conception is well founded; the area has, indeed,
given us a classic analytic term in international relations—‘balkanization’—to
refer to the break-up of an area into small feuding units which makes progress
and development extremely difficult.
Balkans