ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that diplomatic, military, and economic policies may provide an illusion of resolution; they must be accompanied by a long-term strategy that addresses the fundamental role that elites play in determining the nature of ethnicity and the role of nationalism within their society. Regardless of its alleged detrimental effects, nationalism and the forces of ethnicity that drive it are crucial concerns for the immediate security of the entire region. The fact that the United States may be forced, by virtue of its "entangling alliances," to provide military assistance to defend its allies' vital interests is only one of several paradoxes confronting US security planners. The institutions of European security may have been less the solution and more the problem in dealing with the issues of violent European nationalism. The proper focus in analysis of nationalist movements and ethnic strife is not the ideology of nationalism, but the elites who manipulate it for their own purposes.
