The decisive stage of Balkan civilisational development

Essay text:

Some of the more relevant factors among these are the following: ? A major change in the geo - political configuration of the region and the appearance of a number of new sovereign and independent states as individual subjects in international relations; a new formula emerged: 11+2 states in the region (until the beginning of the 90's when there were 6+1); ? Increased instability in the internal political sphere of the countries in the region, and in the relations of political powers and factors, which very often lead to sharp changes or essential corrections of their foreign-policy course, provoke mutual distrust and make the political behavior of a number of states less foreseeable; ? The continuing influence of certain unsolved disputes among some of the countries in the region and the strengthening of ethnic, religious, minority and territorial factors in the formulation and pursuance of their foreign policies; ? Strained mutual relations within the ethnicity - religion - state triad, which directly influences the stability of most Balkan states and the region as a whole; ? The simultaneous occurrence and influence of integrative and disintegrative processes and tendencies, both on a regional and continental level; ? The remaining serious or latent problems in the former Yugoslav territory as a sub - region of the Balkans ( like the conflict in Kosovo in 1998-1999 ), despite the initiated processes and activities following the implementation of the Dayton-Paris agreements; ? The intensified appearance of new-emerging non - military and non - standard risks and threats to the security of the Balkan states in particular and the region as a whole; the enormous increase in organized crime and the more and frequent acts of organized political, ethnical or religious terrorism, the non - sanctioned spread and traffic in drugs, weapons and technologies (here including weapons of mass destruction), manifestations of clerical extremism and fundamentalism, continuing ethnic - minority conflicts, aspirations toward cultural and historical heritages, activities of separatist and irredentist powers and political organizations, etc...