Here’s what to do about US Balkans policy

Chris Hill, America’s Ambassador to Serbia, gave an interview last week to VOA:

What’s wrong with this picture

Here we have an American ambassador to one country casting aspersions on the Prime Minister of a neighboring country. That alone makes me recoil. It is not only unprofessional. It also makes the job of his colleague in Pristina harder. The last time American officials trashed Prime Minister Kurti and even organized his fall from power, he returned after elections with a renewed mandate and an enlarged majority. He has hinted recently he might call a snap election, presumably hoping thereby to show the Americans that he has the unequivocal support of most of Kosovo.

Hill also praises the President of Serbia, the country to which he is accredited, even though Vucic has mobilized troops and sent them to the Kosovo border. There they confronted NATO-led forces, including Americans, who are responsible for Kosovo’s external defense. This is a clear violation of the February normalization agreement between Belgrade and Pristina that the Americans say is legally binding. It prohibits the threat or use of force (Article 3).

Instead of denouncing this violation, Hill mentions that Kosovo Serbs have been playing friendly games with the NATO forces. That’s not surprising. Kosovo Serbs know that NATO today protects them as well as the Albanians south of the Ibar River. It was primarily Serb gangs President Vucic sent from Belgrade who did the dirty work of attacking NATO soldiers. About that, Ambassador Hill says nothing.

Let’s see if Vucic buys

He presses however for the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities inside Kosovo. This proposition was agreed in 2013. The quid pro quo was extension of the rule of law under its constitution to the entire territory of Kosovo. Belgrade, however, has not allowed that extension. It has resisted Pristina’s efforts to get Serbs in northern Kosovo use Kosovo license plates, withdrawn officials from Kosovo institutions in the north, supported and enforced the Serb boycott of elections in northern Kosovo, and maintained clandestine Serbian security forces there, who cooperate with the rioters sent from Belgrade. Not everyone sympathetic to Serb complaints is as blind as the Ambassador to what is going on in the north.

Under current conditions, there is little doubt that creation of the ASMM would formalize Belgrade’s control over northern Kosovo. Nevertheless, I think Pristina should put forward its own proposition for the ASMM. Prime Minister Kurti has mentioned the Serb National Council in Croatia as a possible model. He should spell out that or his own proposition in a written proposal fully consistent with the Kosovo constitution, as the Americans have guaranteed any ASMM has to be. Let’s see if the good Vucic buys. Even if he does, the American guarantee should be in writing with a commitment to monitor implementation on a regular basis.

What now?

Public complaints about current American policy in the Balkans are rife. No one in the State Department is listening. There are, however, lots of government officials at State who are uncomfortable with the blindness towards Serbia’s misdeeds and America’s Kosovo-bashing. It is time for them to get together to submit a dissent channel message that tells Secretary Blinken what he needs to know. His Balkan leadership is making serious mistakes. He should order a speedy reevaluation and course correction.

PS: Even for the State Department, Hill’s comments about Kurti were too much. So Gabe Escobar had to correct them, I think yesterday:

I’m not sure why it is Gabe Escobar who is eating crow.

PPS: Vucic shows (recently) how he merits American approval:

Tags : , ,

Stevenson’s army, June 11

– WH admits China spying from Cuba — since 2019.

– Trump supporters call for violence.

– Researcher sees growing anti-MAGA majority.

– Any finds political polarizing between men and women.

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I republish here, with occasional videos of my choice. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).

Tags : , , ,

Stevenson’s army, June 10

– Fred Kaplan explains the sensitivity of documents kept by Trump.

– WSJ has 40 minute documentary on Wagner group.

– Steve Walt assesses Henry Kissinger’s accomplishments.

– SecState Blinken is going to Beijing.

– WSJ’s Greg Ip assesses Jake Sullivan’s Bidenomics.

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I republish here, with occasional videos of my choice. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).

Tags : , , , ,

Stevenson’s army, June 9

– How many wars are we in today? WH releases latest war powers report.

– Watson Institute at Brown criticizes defense spending.

– There’s a fight over sending troops to Haiti. US wants a UN force; author argues against it.

– Corruption leads US to cut aid to Ethiopia.

– Another Discord leak from WaPo: Saudi prince threatened severe economic pain on US

– Effort to label Wagner a terrorist group fails.

– FT has details of Iranian drones to Russia.

– NYT says satellites saw dam explosion.

Florida man goes to jail for keeping classified documents.  No, a different Florida man.

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I republish here, with occasional videos of my choice. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).

Tags : , , , , , , , , , ,

Fewer sticks, more carrots

Distinguished members of the Albanian American community have sent a stern letter to Secretary of State Blinken. It criticizes the Biden Administration’s one-sided approach to current disputes between Kosovo and Serbia. The US (and EU) have generally sided with Belgrade. They have also threatened Pristina with sanctions if it doesn’t quickly comply with Washington and Brussels demands.

A justified protest…

The protest letter is in my view fully justified. Serbia is aiming to demonstrate and maintain control over the Serb-majority communities in northern Kosovo. This was its goal in over-reacting to Kosovo’s effort to insist on Kosovo license plates in the north. It was the goal in instructing northern Kosovo officials to resign their positions. And it was the goal in getting the Serb population to boycott the elections called to replace them. It is also Belgrade’s goal in pursuing, with strong EU and US support, an Association of Serb Majority Municipalities (ASMM) with executive powers.

Washington and Brussels have backed Serbia hoping to get Belgrade to reorient itself towards the West and away from Moscow. Belgrade’s allowing shipment of arms to Ukraine has reinforced this hope. But there is no sign that President Vucic is prepared to weaken his ties to Moscow and Beijing. To the contrary, he has continued to refuse to align with EU sanctions on Russia (and with many other aspects of EU foreign policy). He maintains an open door for military cooperation with Russia as well as Chinese security technology and investment.

…but more is needed

Kosovo is a sincere friend of the US and EU, not only because of the 1999 NATO intervention that saved its population from ethnic cleansing and war crimes but also because it is a serious democracy. Pristina has no option to turn to Russia or China. Prime Minister Kurti has refused EU and US demands he believes would limit the country’s sovereignty and threaten its territorial integrity. But he needs Western support for Kosovo to survive and thrive.

He also needs greater acceptance by the Serbs in northern Kosovo. He has been relatively successful, building on accomplishments of his predecessors, in getting acceptance by the Serbs who live south of the Ibar river. But in the north, which is contiguous with Serbia, Belgrade’s security services and their allied organized crime networks still prevail. Kurti has been trying to break their control by enforcing Kosovo law in the north, but so far his efforts do not appear to have succeeded.

Fewer sticks, more carrots

The US and EU are threatening sanctions against Kosovo. Kurti is using the police to try to seat mayors elected despite a Serb boycott. These sticks are working. They appear to have stiffened resistance.

Kurti, the US, and the EU should all try a few more carrots.

The Prime Minister needs to show the Serbs in northern Kosovo what they can gain either by allowing the mayors to take their rightful places or by holding new elections. He should propose a statute for the ASM, without executive powers. The US and EU need to show Kurti what he can gain by beginning negotiations on the ASMM. I imagine, for example, that a sincere apology for the Milosevic regime’s homicidal repression in the 1990s and an offer to negotiate compensation, especially for the women raped by Serbian security forces, would go a long way.

Less appeasement

Brussels and Washington have used only carrots with Belgrade. They incongruously praise him as someone who has turned Serbia westward. They avoid any criticism of high-level corruption and autocratic behavior in Serbia. The US only whispers opposition to his mobilization and deployment of the Serbian army on the border with Kosovo, resorts to inappropriately citing “both sides” in criticizing Serb rioters against KFOR troops, and provides ample political and economic support. Vucic pockets the carrots and continues his courtships with Moscow and Beijing. It is high time for appeasement to end.

Tags : , , , ,

End threats to use military force!

Genc Pollo, former minister and member of parliament in Albania, writes from Tirana:

For the third time in the last two years Serbia last week put her armed forces on alert and has deployed them to the border with Kosovo. Apart from infantry and armor, fighter jets have been flying along Kosovo’s airspace.

Belgrade the arsonist

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has verbosely explained on each occasion that his military was ready to intervene in neighboring Kosovo to prevent the suffering of the Serbian community there. In the first two instances, the Kosovo authorities were attempting to get Kosovo Serbs in the north to use Kosovo plates rather than Serbian ones.

In the third and current instance, the Kosovo police were escorting four newly elected mayors into their offices. The Serb majority in the northern municipalities had boycotted the mayoral elections so the elected mayors had a different ethnic background. Furthermore the election was caused by the resignations of the incumbent mayors last December. Both the resignations and the election boycott happened at the behest of Belgrade.

The real problem is the threat to use military force

Such local crises are not a threat to Serbia. Nor are they a violation of Serb rights that should elicit a such a military response by Kosovo’s northern neighbor. The real problem is that the Serbian President threatens his smaller neighbor with the use of military force.

The 1945 UN Charter signatories vowed to “suppress aggression” and to “refrain…from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”. Stronger and more detailed language permeates the OSCE agreements of which Serbia is also a party.

The EU and US make it worse

Perhaps the most alarming development isn’t Vucic’s bravado but the Western response to it. The EU and the US, who are facilitating a “normalization process” between the two Balkan states, have not condemned in clear terms this breach of international law. Instead they have spoken softly of concern while simultaneously chastising Kosovo for the deployment of her police force on her own territory. According to press reports, US and European officials have quietly asked Vucic to withdraw his units.

Some are tempted to say that Serbia is merely gesticulating for domestic consumption. Belgrade knows it cannot match KFOR, the NATO-led troops stationed in Kosovo. That might be true. But this didn’t hinder Belgrade from instigating riot in northern Kosovo to violently attack deployed KFOR units, including with firearms. Dozens of hospitalized soldiers, some in critical condition, were the consequence. NATO had to send in reinforcements.

End appeasement

History teaches us that many past wars were deemed impossible until they broke out, in some cases unintentionally.

It would be in the West’s best interest to end appeasement of the would-be aggressor and to ensure that the threat of using military force is unacceptable, especially by states claiming to want to join the European Union.

Tags : , ,
Tweet