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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 04/04
Introduction: Economic and Social Challenges in South East Europe
Frédéric Labarre
January 2004
Abstract
At a moment w hen the international community is dealing -s truggling, actually- with new security challenges, some of which are internal disputes between members of tw o of the most pow erful (and successful) militar y and economic organisations in his tory, NATO and the EU, it is worth r emembering that some things do evolve in a positive dir ection.
The Dubr ovnik workshop on the iss ue of economic secur ity in South East Europe provides tes timony that per sistent engagement is paying off. Croatia, es pecially, is on its way to being welcomed in the European Union. Certainly, many analysts in the workshop reflected wis tfully on comparisons of economic perfor mance from pre- war levels . Such an analysis is a two-edged s word. On the one hand, it show s in an objective manner that there is f ar more public good r eaped from integrative policies which foster and multiply tr ade opportunities. Indeed, the compar ison with pre-w ar levels offer s the chance to calculate just wher e Croatia might be had there been no w ar.
At least some of the elite of Croatian society are realising that it is far better for everyone to have dis agreements and trade than to s abotage decades of good commer cial relations for the sake of ethnic pur ity. As many ar e now discovering, the dr ive towards ethnic purity is usually riddled with craters and shell holes, some of which inflicted by the armed for ces of concerned members of the international community. Mos t of all, there is the looming understanding that the isolation brought by ethnic purity, if one is consistent with such policies, will not put bread and butter on the table. To some, it might look like an appealing discourse, but exclusion of the differ ent element of one's society can only br ing condemnation from without, and one of the most usef ul tools of the international community remain trade sanctions.
On the other hand, the comparison with pre- war levels of trade is not a r eminiscence of times when inter-ethnic relations were harmonious . They wer en't always, but then again, inter - ethnic r elations in all countries suff er fr om fr iction. And as we have ar gued in a preceding wor kshop, the burden of history in the Balkans, as heavy as it may be, pr oved insuf ficient to war lords in the region. A lot of concerted effor t needed to be applied to bring about the cataclys m of the early 90s. This has brought a s tate of mind that may lead comparis ons w ith pre-war trade levels and those of today to be us ed as another f actor of r esentment against the per ceived aggressor. This is why it would perhaps be better if trade indicator s concentr ated mor e on net progress since the Dayton Accor ds were signed. This way, populations, academics and analysts everywhere concentrate on what will be r ather than what could have been.
