ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the most significant challenges posed by resurgent nationalism to Western Europe. These challenges can be categorized into two broad areas: Ethnic and religious strife and the breakdown of national states and potential threats from a renationalized, expansionistic Russia. The ramifications of internal strife in the form of ethnic and religious conflict can spread beyond the borders of any one state and thus become a security concern even for those Western states that lack contiguous borders with strife-torn areas. The large ethnic Albanian population in the Kosova region, and as well as in Sanjak and Tetovo have prompted Albanian calls for a “Greater Albania.” Ethnic conflict has once again engulfed Serbia over the largely Albanian province of Kosovo. The relatively small size of the ethnic Serbian population, combined with the presence of American peacekeeping troops prevented an outbreak of the sort of ethnic violence seen elsewhere in the states of the former Yugoslavia.