Four Confusions, Four Misunderstandings: Ghosts of America's Balkan Policy
Four Confusions, Four Misunderstandings: Ghosts of America's Balkan Policy

Summary/Abstract: Intellectual foundations lie beyond immediate interests for an understanding of conflicts in zones where peoples and borders intermingle. America, where identities tend to be diffused a generation or two after immigration, copes poorly with narrow national definitions and struggles to find simple rules by which to grasp an otherwise highly complex milieu of the Balkans. As a consequence, US Balkan policy has been based on confusions and misunderstandings that must be, first, recognized and acknowledged before Americans can fashion strategically sensible policies. The essay offers a short “net assessment” of the region circa 2001, and then discuss the roots of Western policy encounters with Southeastern Europe.

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