Word: balkanizing
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...were there any wounds opened? Maybe. Bush, in the middle of unrewarding digression into matters Balkan, started talking in rather warm terms about the Russians and their willingness to help pry Slobodan Milosevic out of the president's chair. Gore reminded Bush that the Russians haven't been much help in that regard. Bush: "Obviously we wouldn't ask the Russians if they didn't agree with our answer, Mr. Vice President," Gore: "But they don't." Was it Gerald Ford's liberation of Poland? Hardly. But in the debate's one foray into foreign-policy specifics, Bush sounded like...
...American officials seem confident Kostunica would at least aim for stability and search for political solutions to Balkan conflicts rather than excite ethnic terror. They think he is making the right moves during this dicey period, pursuing legal appeals to confirm the vote as well as calling for peaceful civil disobedience to shut the country down and force a reckoning on Milosevic. While Kostunica insists that he won't stand in the regime's planned runoff, he remains reluctant to hand Milosevic an uncontested victory. The U.S. and Europe encouragingly promise to lift economic sanctions on Yugoslavia and dish...
...logic aside, Western diplomats point out that Milosevic, like other autocrats, is not above creating bloody diversions if he feels his grip on power is threatened--as it may be by unexpected results in upcoming elections. And while independent-leaning Montenegrins, many of whom fought for Milosevic in earlier Balkan wars, do not savor the prospect of another battle, there is little love lost for a President whose policies have wrecked the economy and turned their homeland into a pariah state. One thing is clear: if there is a war in this tiny republic, it will be cataclysmic...
...Karadzic and Mladic and Milosevic," he says, rattling off the names of three indicted Balkan war criminals. Then an aside: "Once when I went to see Milosevic, I was stuck in the elevator for 15 minutes! After that I would always take the stairs." He laughs and continues, "But when you see these guys, it is hard to understand. Milosevic will talk about his days when he was a banker here in New York City. He speaks English, sounds like a rational, reasonable person, and yet he is capable of all sorts of acts. How do they...
...someone so central to the process, Ross could not be more self-effacing. Of the three primary U.S. negotiators of the post-cold war era--the other two are George Mitchell, who helped midwife the Northern Irish peace, and Richard Holbrooke, the brash, Balkan knucklebuster and current U.N. Ambassador--Ross is far and away the most modest. While Holbrooke is known for his deft use of sycophancy and insinuation--key tools of diplomacy when used properly--Ross uses a different method. "Dennis makes up for that lack of flattery and manipulation through trust and discretion," says a former confidant...