The Lessons of Kosovo
It is a good time to review the developments in Kosovo since 1999, which highlight the dire consequences of excessively ambitious long-distance social engineering and centralism in name of nation-building.
Far from destabilizing the region, the 2006 secession of Montenegro from Serbia was affected peacefully, legitimately and in accord with the wishes of the majority of the Montenegrin population. If Kosovo were to follow a similar path, there is no reason to expect that it would destabilize the Balkans any more than Montenegro has.
Next, one should apply this lesson to Iraq and elsewhere, if not by granting ethnic and confessional groups full independence, then a high level of autonomy, including in matters concerning regional security.
Amitai Etzioni is a professor of sociology and international relations at The George Washington University. This text draws on his book Security First: For A Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy to be published by Yale University Press this spring.