Two to Tango?

In the first few days of this trip with as little as I knew about this conflict, I was positive that a breakout of war like the one that transpired here in the 90s would never happen again. I walked the streets and saw people of all walks of life gathering and laughing at cafes, shopping, enjoying the sunshine. How can a country where people are sitting outside enjoying coffee turn into chaos? How can a place where synagogues, churches, and mosques sit next to one another turn into one of complete divisions?

Easily. Very easily. As the second speaker today mentioned, you don’t need two sides to start a conflict. You only need one to push the other side into a position where they have no other choice but to react. There’s a popular saying that goes, “It takes two to tango.” But in this current state of a “frozen conflict,” is that really true? If the Republika of Srpska or Serbian forces make good on their threats of “the end of Bosnia as we know it” over them joining NATO, Bosnia would have no choice but to protect themselves. 

As we have learned through intelligence, Russia is helping to train military forces and stockpile weapons. They have every vested interest in opening up old wounds and preventing unity in the region to protect their old Soviet stomping grounds and protect themselves from an ever growing EU power. To me, this “time of peace” seems extremely fragile and as history has shown, one seemingly miniscule event could trigger a much larger and deadlier reaction. As more and more speakers come to share their viewpoints, I realize that this division has been more longstanding and may be even worse than I previously thought. My biggest worry would be Russia’s influence growing so large that it causes a reaction from the Western world fueling old tensions from the Cold War and new tensions from Russian meddling in elections. 

As I sit here and absorb all that I have learned the last week and a half, I am coming to the realization that it really might not take “two to tango”. So far, it seems as though only one side feels like dancing and the other may have no choice but to join in.