ICNC October 23, 2020: Recent precedents we can learn from about how to stop attempts to overturn election results include… one in Southeast Asia, one in Africa and two in Eastern Europe… through large-scale nonviolent direct action. This article looks at these cases, and identifies key lessons.
Category: Serbia
The War on Yugoslavia, 10 Years Later
Foreign Policy In Focus/IPS April 6, 2009, by Emily Schwartz Greco, Stephen Zunes [source]
It has been 10 years since the U.S.-led war on Yugoslavia. For many leading Democrats, including some in top positions in the Obama administration, it was a “good” war, in contrast to the Bush administration’s “bad” war on Iraq. And though the suffering and instability unleashed by the 1999 NATO military campaign wasn’t as horrific as the U.S. invasion of Iraq four years later, the war was nevertheless unnecessary and illegal, and its political consequences are far from settled. Unless there’s a willingness to critically re-examine the war, the threat of another war in the name of liberal internationalism looms large…
Mauritania’s coup is a setback for democracy
National Catholic Reporter, October 3, 2008 by Stephen Zunes and Hardy Merriman [source]
The overthrow in August of what arguably constituted the most democratic government in the Arab world marks a serious setback in Africa as well as the Middle East. There had been great expectations for Mauritania when the country had its first free elections in 2006. As one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world and, as with many other African countries, its boundaries and nationhood largely an artificial creation of European colonial powers, Mauritania fanned hopes that if democracy could take hold there, it could triumph anywhere.
Video interview: The Politics of the U.S. Recognition of Serbia
The Real News Network, Feb. 26, 2008; 7-min. Video & Transcript
interview with Stephen Zunes and hear his audio interview at
Free Radio Santa Cruz/Indymedia Center(IMC) Feb. 26, 2008
Kosovo and the Politics of Recognition
Foreign Policy In Focus, Feb. 21, 2008, by Stephen Zunes
Also at Salem-News.com, ZNet, and Accuracy.org.
The Bush administration’s extended diplomatic recognition immediately upon that country’s declaration of independence on February 17 has raised serious concerns. Indeed, it serves as a reminder of the series of U.S. policy blunders over the years that have compounded the Balkan tragedy… For most of the 1990s, the Kosovar Albanians waged their struggle nonviolently, using strikes, boycotts, peaceful demonstrations, and strengthening their parallel institutions. This was the time for Western powers to have engaged in preventative diplomacy. However, the world chose to ignore the Kosovars’ nonviolent movement and resisted the consistent pleas by the moderate Kosovar Albanian leadership…
Strategic Dialogue: Kosovo
Foreign Policy In Focus, February 29, 2008 [source]
By John Feffer, Ian Williams, Stephen Zunes
Was the United States too hasty in recognizing the new state of Kosovo? Ian Williams and Stephen Zunes have different takes in this strategic dialogue. To see the original essays, follow these links to Williams and Zunes.
Bombing Is Not The Answer
Common Dreams by Stephen Zunes, March 24, 1999
[Source is no longer available]
The ongoing threats of NATO air strikes against Serbia to end the Milosevic regime’s repression against Kosovo’s Albanian majority is a prime example of the wrong policy at the wrong time. The cause is certainly just: The Serbian authorities have imposed an apartheid-style system on the country’s ethnic Albanian majority and have severely suppressed cultural and political rights. However, this suppression has been ongoing since Milosevic revoked Kosovo’s autonomy in 1989…