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Originally Posted by PowerPuff Grrl
Is that why nobody did anything with the Bosnian genocide? Because any European intervention would have escalated into something bigger?
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Well, it could not escalade because the EU does exist, but It was also impossible for Germany , France and the UK to reach a common position on the subject (because of conflicting traditional alliances), so nothing was done. At this stage of the EU, nothing can be done if a unanimous decision is not reached, as for a unilateral action by only one EU member, it's absolutely unthinkable (theoritically allowed, but realistically impossible, no EU member would dare to go that road).
freddie, i actually agree that the Pan-Slavic movement did not cause WWI, that's why i said 'ignited', the Pan-Slavic movement was not the cause but they did ignite the whole thing. But of course, at the time the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were both preparing for war.
The German Empire wanted to "expand" to France to recreate the old
Frankish Realm (reuniting France and Germany like under the rule of the Frankish dynasties has always been a lingering dream among leaders of both countries and is the root cause of all the French-German wars).
The Austro-Hungarian Empire wanted to expand to the south to gain access to the sea.
I also agree that no EU members would have ever gotten involved in the Yugoslav conflict, that's precislely the point. What i meant is that *if* the EU had not existed, if European powers had remained totally sovereign states, then they would have intervene in Yugoslavia, each one siding their traditional allies. The EU prevented that, it totally neutralized any "power play" in Europe and Yugoslavia in particular during the war over there.
As for blaming the EU for not stopping the war in Yugoslavia, well, first of all, and i mean no disrespect, nobody forced Yugoslavs to kill and rape each other the way they did, the responsibily lies first on the ones who commited the acts.
I remember that when i was younger, Yougoslavia was considered in Western Europe as one of the most advanced and open countries of the socialist block, with a good level of life and education compared to other socialist countries.
Nobody in Western Europe was expecting Yougoslavia to break into a civil war (especially since other socialist countries were transitioning relatively peacefully), and when the war started in Yougoslavia, the general reaction in Western Europe was… disbelief. Disbelief in seeing well educated Europeans going back to the most atrocious behavior in no time, neighbors massacring neighbors they had known for decades, men who used to be decent workers or students becoming gang-rapists, torturers, and mass-murderers only a few weeks later…
Again, nobody in Western Europe was expecting to see Yougoslavia drown in such senseless violence so rapidly, mass-rapes, mass-executions, in the late 20th century in Europe, everybody was stunned and simply did not understand the reason of such madness.
And yes, the EU did not intervene, simply because the EU is not allowed to take such actions. EU members have transferred a lot of sovereignty to the EU, but that does not include (yet) the military sovereignty, the EU can not take any military actions and therefore intervention in Yougoslavia was impossible.
And a unilateral action from one or a few EU members was impossible as well because of an unwritten agreement that forbids unilateral military action on European soil.
I wish that the EU had military forces (i've already said that i support the idea that France should transfer its nuclear capabilities to the EU), but we are not there yet, and we certainly weren't there 15 years ago.