You Can’t Fire Me, I Quit!

In a face-saving, yet silly move, the Serbs have declared independence. It seems those naughty Montenegrins will oppress them no longer.

Serbia Declares Independence

June 5, 2006 – Serbia’s parliament abandoned the country’s 88-year-old federation with Montenegro today, two days after Montenegro declared independence.The lawmakers proclaimed Serbia’s own independence, and transferred solely onto Belgrade the international status of the federation of Serbia and Montenegro, including its seat in bodies such as the United Nations.

The state flag has already disappeared from the Serbian parliament building, and the Serbian flag is to be raised in its place later in the day. Starting today, Serbian soldiers will be withdrawn from Montenegro, and Montenegrins serving in Serbia can return to their native republic to become part of its nascent force. The move also brings to an end the 15-year-long dissolution of Yugoslavia, after Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia split in the early 1990s.

Dan Nexon of The Duck has emailed us an interesting link on the coming wave of micro states.

As Montenegro officially declared independence this weekend, accepting the world’s welcome into the community of nations, a handful of obscure “statelets” are demanding the same opportunity to choose their own destinies. In the latest example, Transdniestria, a Russian-speaking enclave that won de facto independence in the early 1990s, declared last week that it will hold a Montenegro-style referendum in September as part of its campaign for statehood.

Experts fear that many “frozen conflicts” around the world – in which a territory has gained de facto independence through war but failed to win international recognition – could reignite as ethnic minorities demand the same right to self-determination that many former Yugoslav territories have been offered by the international community.

Will Montenegro’s independence perhaps hinder Kosovo’s? May Kosovo be the spark that reignites conflicts in the former USSR? Similar to the first two Balkan Wars preceeding WWI, this will indeed be interesting. All of the Caucasus could flare up again not to mention Moldova and others. How small is too small for a state? Is it time to finally look past our outdated notions of states and find a new one? Will the post-Soviet world order look like the post WWI order with League of Nation Mandates exchanged for International Protectorates like Kosovo is now? Readers?