Nenad Kavazovic of the Sarajevo weekly "Svijet" writes in the October 5, 1997 issue of that magazine on the future role of NATO in Bosnia and Herzegovina.Will the NATO forces, including there the American troops, stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina after June of next year when the SFOR mandate runs out ? At the moment, this still remains an open question.
If possibilities and intentions are analyzed in more detail, than it is perfectly clear that what is visible or what is said about the role of the international community does not exclude, but actually understands and encompasses what is being denied or is attempted to be hidden.
This becomes even more visible when things are looked at from the military angle. If Europe is "the big community from which nobody is excluded" (Jacques Shirac), then included in this family are the Balkans and European East and the USA. It is not overstated if it is said that the strengthening of the consciousness of belonging to one family has a distinct military aspect and that the main role there belongs to NATO as the future guarantor of the collective security on the old continent and wider !
It is exactly through NATO that the American leading role is being confirmed, the inability of Europe to act decisively and build for the first time its own collective security and trace new roads in which co-operation and agreement will dominate and not conflict of different interests. Three Eastern countries have been accepted into NATO (Hungary, Czech Republic and Poland), with Russia, a form is still being searched for a compromise.
Is it possible to go that far to the East and circumvent the Balkans, the area between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, as if it was the black hole of infinite conflicts ? Well, of course it is not ! Bosnia is minute, and so far, it was mainly on the side track. It is exactly the new events, relations and developments make out of it a point of strategic importance which surpasses its size. The Westerners, particularly the Americans, when they hear these arguments, usually protest, and pull out that old one concerning the Bosnian - Balkan inability to grasp the problems, and that Bosnian position is greatly overrated. But, agreements and joint actions can be achieved through various means, and at that, there can be gains and there can be losses. Didn't the Americans prove in Bosnia that Europe cannot do without them, that they used this situation to confirm their vitality and the ability of great power ?
Out of this, let us get back again to the capabilities and intentions, a conclusion can be drawn: Bosnia cannot do without NATO, but it cannot do without Bosnia, a country in which it is gaining a new shape and essence. Bosnia, and its surroundings, are the first serious obstacle and a test of the new, enlarged alliance, and new collective security. Too many big things are in question so that you would allow to stay without a leg due to the Bosnian pebble in the shoe.
So, that is why SFOR will change its name and remain in Bosnia, and it will remain there until the peace process is really achieved and until NATO needs Bosnia. As it can be seen now, neither of the tow can be limited to the Summer of next year.
Source: Sarajevo weekly "Svijet", October 5, 1997
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