ABSTRACT
Politics in southeastern Europe, and particularly the policies of the Yugoslav states towards the ICTY, have been considerably influenced by the role NATO has played in the region, especially concerning the plans for a continued expansion of the Alliance into eastern Europe. A traditional line of argument against NATO expansion is based on the "unpaid bills" theory, namely on unresolved conflicts or potential conflicts between the candidates for membership in the Alliance. The high political quarters inside NATO often stress that the new mission of NATO in Europe is to control low-intensity armed conflicts, regional in nature, and with a high, if not predominant, degree of ethno-political motivation. Political moderation has been a major cause of stability in western Europe since the Second World War. The radical policies that have dominated the agenda of disintegration of the former Yugoslavia have been fueled by self-perpetuating animosities crudely grouped under the term "nationalism".
