Why should anyone insist on keeping a multiethnic, yet highly segregated, Bosnia intact? Why was a truly pluralist and multiethnic Yugoslavia let to slide into the abyss of civil war?>>>
1. Because it's better to have one small state of 3 million people than 3 small states of 1 million people. Besides, Bosnia works as an artificial multiethnic state a lot better than it did as a mindless war zone.
2. Forcing ethnicities to live together is WHAT STATES DO.
3. Yugoslavia was one of two things: either a Serb mini-empire (1919-1941) or a Commie mini-empire (1945-1990). When the commies went away the Serbs tried to make it into a Serb mini-empire again in 1991. When the other ethnicities didn't want to submit, the Serbs ran amuck.
Don't blame the Muslims for that one. This time at least they have grounds for complaint.
ALL I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ANY MUSLIM I LEARNED ON 9/11!!!
bosnia sucks!
Bosnia may be small but it is probably the most inefficient state known to political scientists the world over. There's the central gov't in Sarajevo and the Government of Republika Srpska + there are 17 other administrative authorities (the 10 cantons in the Federation and the 7 districts of Republika Srpska) which have about 10 ministries/departments each. All this in a state that's smaller than Maine.
Besides, in the case of dissolution, Herceg-Bosna might join Croatia, and Republika Srpska might join Serbia. So, we won't have three small states with 1M people each.
Besides, Bosnia works as an artificial multiethnic state a lot better than it did as a mindless war zone.
I agree. But the fact that it was an artificial multiethnic state was what caused the war in the first place.
2. Forcing ethnicities to live together is WHAT STATES DO.
It's not what nation-states do. :-) And, anyway, there is little desire among Croats and Serbs in Bosnia to live in a unitary, Muslim-dominated state. Despite the fact that they comprise the majority of population (17.5% and 36%, respectively), the Muslims won't accept anything less than near-absolute control over Bosnia.
3. Yugoslavia was one of two things: either a Serb mini-empire (1919-1941) or a Commie mini-empire (1945-1990). When the commies went away the Serbs tried to make it into a Serb mini-empire again in 1991. When the other ethnicities didn't want to submit, the Serbs ran amuck.
Strange, because Serbia was and is the most multiethnic of all the former Yugoslav republics (30% of the population is non-Serb, and some 27 minorities live in Serbia).
Serbia emerged as a victor in WWI and had already been an independent kingdom for 50 years. Serbia was offered the whole of Bosnia and half of Croatia in 1919, but Belgrade refused that, opting instead for a pan-Slavic state (later Yugoslavia). Obviously, the subjugation and domination of other ethnic groups wasn't high on the agenda.
Don't blame the Muslims for that one. This time at least they have grounds for complaint.
They have no right to complain. They unilaterally and unconstitutionally seceded from Yugoslavia in 1992 and refused on more than one occassion different peace plans offered by the EU.
Welcome to Free Republic.
Muslims ALWAYS have grounds for complaint. In France, in Australia, in Netherlands, in Kosovo, everywhere they go.