The Balkans Stability Pact as a Regional Conflict Management and Prevention 'Space': An Evaluation

Book Chapter
Dennis Sandole
Dennis Sandole
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The Balkans Stability Pact as a Regional Conflict Management and Prevention 'Space': An Evaluation
Language: English, Hielf
ISBN: 3-901328-75-0
URL:
Dr. Sandole's general goal in this presentation is to examine the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe: the "pearl of the German presidency of the European Union" adopted in Köln on 10 June 1999, the day that NATO's 78-day bombing campaign of Serbia ceased.

This juxtapositioning of events is important as it apparently took the Kosovo conflict (but not the Bosnian conflict alone!) to encourage European states and other members of the international community, to respond to events in the Balkans with something like the Stability Pact.
 
The Stability Pact represents an ambitious attempt to deal with the Balkans on a regional basis, recognizing that all political units and conflicts in the region are components of a larger whole; such that to deal effectively with any one unit or conflict means that, ultimately, the others - and their interconnections - have to be dealt with as well, if not simultaneously, then certainly in sequence.

The workshop summary text focuses on the most important common goal for all states in the Western Balkans with respect the European Security Pact for Southeast Europe; that is, the prospects for prevention of new violent conflicts and inclusion into the EU and NATO.  The following issues dominated the discussion:  1) What are the main tasks of the Stability Pact in South East Europe?  2) Which role does the international presence play in the stabilisation process?; 3) What are the problems, potentially endangering the peace process?   A consensus is reached that the Stability Pact compared with earlier measures of conflict management in the region is a more comprehensive and therefore more useful instrument offering stability to the region.  Further It was also accepted by most of the participants that the Stability Pact is a very useful instrument definingcommon interests and providing a regional forum for communication and cooperation.
 

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