Ultimately proposed status should be close to independence

"Kosovo is ready for its total independence," said the Prime Minister of what is still an autonomous province of the Serbia under administration of the United Nations since 1999 with force. Agim Ceku, the former General of the KLA, the Kosovo Liberation Army, not regard independence as the first towards accession to the European Union. But the first not today is far from assured for this province populated more than 90 of Kosovars of Albanian descent, at least in the short term. The Special Envoy of the United Nations, Martti Ahtisaari, has delayed the presentation of these proposals after the elections of January 21 in Serbia, which fears further delays the supporters of independence.

The Russia and China will be extremely attentive to the Security Council of the United Nations that the Serbia accepts these proposals. More discreetly, countries such as the Germany and the Italy, or France, are careful to put final touches to the breakdown of what was Yugoslavia, after the separation of Montenegro from the Serbia. NGOs such as Human Rights Watch worried after the serious incidents of March 2004 between Kosovar and Serbian minority, the malfunction of the judicial system. The protection of Serbs remained in Kosovo after the war of the 1990s, other minorities and the Orthodox religious heritage is the priority concern of the international community. Kosovo happens too late to take advantage of this fantastic movement of fragmentation of the political geography of the planet Probably not. Ultimately proposed status should be close to independence.

The caution of some cache however a deep concern about the rise of new claims to independence. Since fall of the wall of Berlin, of the collapse of the Soviet empire, of the former Yugoslavia and the former Czechoslovakia, the Europe only if it includes the Russia and Georgia has seen the birth, or renaissance, 16 new countries. The Asian side, 7 independent republics are from the former USSR. The United Nations, which included 51 countries originally in 1945 and 159 after decolonization, now has 192 members. While some countries have been unified or "reunified" since the 1960s, Tanganyika and Zanzibar to form Tanzania, the two Yemens and the two Germanys. But the trend of the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century goes in a direction of the Balkanization of the world to the grouping. And the movement is likely not completed. The us in Iraq, as adventure emphasized recently President Jacques Chirac with his wishes to ambassadors, "has exacerbated the divide between communities and undermined the integrity" of the country. In a region with poorly defined borders after the end of the ottoman and British empires, this threat could give rise to three major entities: Shiite south, Sunni Centre and Kurdish north.

This large nationalist turmoil may seem paradoxical in the great movement of globalization. In his book "The Nation in all its States", Alain Dieckhoff CNRS noted with accuracy that "expression of these nationalisms seems to go from a process of globalization, according to common sense, which should be accompanied by the emergence of a genuine human condition". Of course, the proliferation of "small nations" is a laudable phenomenon often to protect the communities threatened by stronger entities. In 2002, the international community celebrated the independence of the claws of the Indonesia of Timor Leste and the million inhabitants of this part of the island. A celebration even more appreciated that the United Nations, through the strength of the Australian army, had applied with skill the principle of "prevention-pre-emption" to avoid what could be a real massacre. This nationalistic resurgence is also at the end of the huge "empires" as in the case of the USSR under authoritarian rule.

Independence is a sign that wrong not the advance of democracy, this "right of peoples to self-determination". But at the same time, nationalist and separatist movements are an additional factor of instability. And it is not only of the Russia with the Chechnya, the India with Kashmir or the Georgia with Abkhazia. But this also concerns the Spain with the nagging basque problem or that of the Catalan nation, or even England and Scotland. In Belgium, pro-independence under the leadership of the extreme right party Vlaams Belang do not seek the separation of the less rich Wallonia Flanders

The emergence of a nation, more and more the micro-Etats, is not an end in itself. Fifteen years after its independence, a country like Macedonia has not adopted a common language that could have been a factor of social cohesion and coexistence between the "Albanian" communities (approximately 30 of the population) and "Macedonian" (65) is fragile. This instability in the Balkans, the only stability buoy is the prospect of accession to NATO and especially the European Union. But is it enough The accession of Cyprus in 2004 has not solved the question of the partition of the island. In addition, the European Union is now limited without a new Treaty to expand after the coming of the Bulgaria and the Romania, even though Macedonia or the province of Kosovo has only 2 million people. And the other continents are offer such prospects of integration. The world is more bipolar as of time of the cold war, and if the emergence of great powers like China, the India, the Brazil or the South Africa, the more multipolar, it is also threatened with fragmentation.