ABSTRACT

During the uncertain and unstable political conditions the collapse of the old Yugoslavia, two general and opposing international principles were at issue. They are: the right of ethnic groups, the right of states to preserve their territorial integrity and sovereignty. The creation of new states out of old multiethnic states generates newer problems of self-determination and sovereignty, and of newly contested boundaries and dissident minorities. In 1991, new state recognition policy provided a method of destroying long-standing sovereign independent states. The controversy of federal constitution became a problem of new states locked in conflict with each other, the degree of involvement of the Western powers and Russia, and questions about the appropriate roles of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United Nations in the Balkan war. NATO after the Cold War serves a useful purpose in policing Europe as a collective security organization.