Blerim Reka: From Cold War To Hot Peace

The recent visits of (the Serbian President Aleksandar) Vucic and (Serbian member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Hercegovina, Milorad) Dodik to Moscow and the support of (the Russian President Vladimir) Putin to Serbian interests, have prompted Belgrade’s war- mongering appetites. Serbia’s accelerated militarisation and the request by Srpska Republic for the deployment of Russian army has alerted NATO. These conclusions are presented by the former Kosovo Minister of European Integration, and university professor, Blerim Reka, in a short Facebook analysis, which is a part of his newest book “Balkan Geopolitics. From Cold War To Hot Peace”.

Further Reka analyzes the return of Russia’s attention to the Balkans. According to him “Kremlin, not accidentally, turned its attention to the Balkans, to cover the military deployment of its troops to the borders of Ukraine; at a time of the greatest tensions of the relations with the US, and ahead of the Biden-Putin video call meeting”. The video call between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Putin will be held on December 7.

The two capitals have confirmed that the main topic of video call will be the tense situation in Ukraine.

“World peace is being tested in Ukraine and clouds of war are covering the Black Sea. As Thucydides said ‘fear is the truest cause of a war”, Reka writes. The Geopost has reported that Russia has deployed around 100,000 troops on the border with Ukraine in recent weeks and there is a growing international concern about the possible escalation of the situation.

As regards the developments in the Balkans, professor Reka underlines that the region is in between a cold war and a hot peace.

“But the year 2021 is not 1991. At that time, none of the Balkan countries engaged in wars were NATO members. The North Atlantic Alliance was a peace-creating force, while today it is a peace-keeping force. Three decades after those wars, half of the six Balkan states are NATO members. In two others, there are international peacekeepers (KFOR and EUFOR) and only one is against NATO, while with a Russian base. Serbia, surrounded by NATO, knows that a start of a new war would be devastating for Belgrade”, Reka wrote.

“However, the most militarized state in the region continues to threaten with a war. Through the Serbian world Vucic got back to the war movie of his boss Milosevic. That movie has ended up with the dissolution of the Yugoslav state. This new one, starting from Vucic’s war- mongering adventure, will end in a similar fashion, with Serbia shrinking into Belgrade’s Pashadom (province)”, Reka concludes.