Eurasia Press & News
US
The Balkans will not be one of the priorities of U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, U.S. professor Steven Meyer said.
Meyer, a professor of political science at the National Defense University, said that Obama’s administration will only pay an extra amount of attention to the Balkans if a crisis breaks out in the region.
He told Voice of America that the Balkans will not be ignored, however, “since there are many people in his administration from the administration of former president Bill Clinton”, adding that the current situation in the Balkans is a “result of activities by the Democrats and their political heritage”.
Meyer said that he does not believe that “concrete measures will be taken in the current situation” especially in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, but said that “the situation in Bosnia is sliding towards uncertainty more and more”.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there were serious internal disagreement over the next year regarding many questions – the possible indictment against Republic of Srpska Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, the constitutional reforms, the question of state property, and the increasing ethnic tensions,” the American expert said.
Meyer said that Bosnia has problems “in the context of different concepts and ambitions between Sarajevo and Banja Luka” even though the international community is “working to eliminate that”.
“On the other hand, in Kosovo, you have the evolution of a frozen conflict. Belgrade does not want to give up on sovereignty over Kosovo, while the U.S. and other western countries, along with Priština, do not want to give up on independence. In essence, the reality is that there have been no significant changes either in Bosnia or Kosovo,” he said.
Meyer added that changes in general in Obama’s foreign policies are negligible, because the administration is currently focused on internal problems, especially with the financial crisis.
