From: "Colleen Harvel" <ncharvel-AT-ecst.csuchico.edu>
Subject: Re: the Balkans: tinderbox of the world?????
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 1999 12:30:30 -0700


Dear Mr. Tsai:

I have included a copy of a listserv posting which has to do with NATO's
presence in Kosovo. I'm not sure if it was intended for a newspaper or not,
but hopefully it is the one which you requested.

Also, another listserv member requested leads to articles which address
NATO's presence in Kosovo. I have included that posting and the responses to
it as well.

Best,

Colleen
****************************************************************************
********
Interesting, brief overview of NATO's interests here...

x.d
--
Danny Butt
GDV Publishing Ltd.
+64 25 293-0932

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1999 22:37:37 -0800 (PST)
From: human being <schizo-AT-sirius.com>
To: nettime-l-AT-Desk.nl
Subject: <nettime> Oil, NATO and Yugoslavia


 contra Agre (with respect) regarding the connection between war and oil-
 geopolitical machines (like these computers) being fueled like they are...

bc

--- begin forwarded text

Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1999 10:25:24 +0000
Reply-To: rozov-AT-nsu.ru
Sender: PHILosophy OF HIstory and theoretical history <PHILOFHI-AT-YORKU.CA>
From: "Nikolai S. Rozov" <rozov-AT-nsu.ru>
Organization: Novosibirsk State University
Subject:      Oil, NATO and Yugoslavia


>From Sean Gervasi's "Why is NATO in Yugoslavia?", delivered to the
Conference on the Enlargement of NATO in Eastern Europe and the
Mediterrenean, in Prague, Czech Republic, January 13-14, 1996. The complete
paper is at http://www.mclink.it/assoc/fondpasti/nato/gerv-e.htm. Gervasi
was a frequent contributor to Covert Action Quarterly and taught in
Belgrade at the Institute of International Politics and Economics in the
1980s. He died in July, 1996. The kind of life he led and the example he
set is described in a London Telegraph obit that follows this excerpt from
his paper. Gervasi was probably the most forceful defender of peace and
social justice in former Yugoslavia that we had.

===============
Yugoslavia is significant not just for its own position on the map, but
also for the areas to which it allows access. And influential American
analysts believe that it lies close to a zone of vital US interests, the
Black Sea-Caspian Sea region.

This may be the real significance of the NATO task force in Yugoslavia.

The United States is now seeking to consolidate a new European-Middle
Eastern bloc of nations. It is presenting itself as the leader of an
informal grouping of Muslim countries stretching from the Persian Gulf into
the Balkans. This grouping includes Turkey, which is of pivotal importance
in the emerging new bloc. Turkey is not just a part of the southern Balkans
and an Aegean power. It also borders on Iraq, Iran and Syria. It thus
connects southern Europe to the Middle East, where the US considers that it
has vital interests.

The US hopes to expand this informal alliance with Muslim states in the
Middle East and southern Europe to include some of the new nations on the
southern rim of the former Soviet Union.

The reasons are not far to seek. The US now conceives of itself as being
engaged in a new race for world resources. Oil is especially important in
this race. With the war against Iraq, the US established itself in the
Middle East more securely than ever. The almost simultaneous disintegration
of the Soviet Union opened the possibility of Western exploitation of the
oil resources of the Caspian Sea region.

This region is extremely rich in oil and gas resources. Some Western
analysts believe that it could become as important to the West as the
Persian Gulf

Countries like Kazakhstan have enormous oil reserves, probably in excess of
9 billion barrels. Kazakhstan could probably pump 700,000 barrels a day.
The problem, as in other countries of the region, at least from the
perspective of Western countries, has been to get the oil and gas resources
out of the region and to the West by safe routes. The movement of this oil
and gas is not simply a technical problem. It is also political.

It is of crucial importance to the US and to other Western countries today
to maintain friendly relations with countries like Kazakhstan. More
importantly, it is important to know that that any rights acquired, to pump
petroleum or to build pipelines to transport it, will be absolutely
respected. For the amounts which are projected for investment in the region
are very large.

What this means is that Western producers, banks, pipeline companies, etc.
want to be assured of "political stability" in the region. They want to be
assured that there will be no political changes which would threaten their
new interests or potential ones.

An important article in THE NEW YORK TIMES recently described what has been
called a new "great power game" in the region, drawing an analogy to the
competition between Russia and Great Britain in the northwest frontier of
the Indian subcontinent in the nineteenth century. The authors of the
article wrote that, "Now, in the years after the cold war, the United
States is again establishing suzerainty over the empire of a former foe.
The disintegration of the Soviet Union has prompted the United States to
expand its zone of military hegemony into Eastern Europe (through NATO) and
into formerly neutral Yugoslavia. And -- most important of all -- the end
of the cold war has permitted America to deepen its involvement in the
Middle East." [12]

Obviously, there have been several reasons which prompted Western leaders
to seek the expansion of NATO. One of these, and an important one, has
clearly been a commercial one. This becomes more evident as one looks more
closely at the parallel development of commercial exploitation in the
Caspian Sea region and the movement of NATO into the Balkans.

On May 22, 1992, the North Atlantic Treay Organization issued a remarkable
statement regarding the fighting then going on in Transcaucasia. This read
in part as follows: "[The] Allies are profoundly disturbed by the
continuing conflict and loss of life. There can be no solution to the
problem of Nagomo-Karabakh or to the differences it has caused between
Armenia and Azerbaijan by force. "Any action against Azerbaijan's or any
other state's territorial integrity or to achieve political goals by force
would represent a flagrant and unacceptable violation of the principles of
international law. In particular we [NATO] could not accept that the
recognized status of Nagorno-Karabakh or Nakhichevan can be changed
unilaterally by force." [13]

This was a remarkable statement by any standards. For NATO was in fact
issuing a veiled warning that it might have to take "steps" to prevent
actions by governments in the Caspian Sea region which it construed as
threatening vital Westem interests.

Two days before NATO made this unusual declaration of interest in
Transcaucasion affairs, an American oil Company, Chevron, had signed an
agreement with the government of Kazakhstan for the development of the
Tengiz and Korolev oil fields in the Westem part of the country. The
negotiations for this agreement had been under way for two years prior to
its being signed. And reliable sources have reported that they were in
danger of breaking down at the time because of Chevron's fears of political
instability in the region. [14]

At the time that NATO made its declaration, of course, there would have
been little possibility of backing up its warning. There was, first of all,
no precedent at all for any large, out-of-area operation by NATO. NATO
forces, furthermore, were far removed from Transcaucasia. It does not take
a long look at a map of the Balkans, the Black Sea the Caspian Sea to
realize that the situation is changing.

--- end forwarded text



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     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
----- Original Message -----
From: Christopher Tsai <cct12-AT-columbia.edu>
To: <postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 1999 7:01 AM
Subject: Re: the Balkans: tinderbox of the world?????


> Dear Friends,
>
> Some time ago, a joint letter regarding NATO action in Kosovo was posted
> to the listserve. I believe it was supposed to be sent to a major
> newspaper. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I've lost the post and now realize
> I'd like to include it in my M.A. thesis. I'd be extremely grateful if
> someone would either point me to the newspaper's URL or just resend a
> copy of the letter. Thank you much in advance!
> -EET
>
>
>      --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
>
****************************************************************************
********
I am looking for articles focusing on the role of NATO in the Kosovo
conflict.
 Does anyone out there have any suggestions about pieces with NATO as their
 specific focus?  I know there is a lot out there, but does anything stand
out
 in anyone's mind?  Thank you.

 Jen Marshall


     In a message dated 5/24/99 11:22:03 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
jdm4-AT-lehigh.edu
writes:

<< I am looking for articles focusing on the role of NATO in the Kosovo
conflict.
  Does anyone out there have any suggestions about pieces with NATO as their
  specific focus?  I know there is a lot out there, but does anything stand
out
  in anyone's mind?  Thank you. >>

Check out the last few issues of The Nation.  April Shemak


     The May 3 issue of "The Nation" has some good articles on Kosovo and
NATO.
In particular, it has a very interesting article by George Konrad, the
Hungrian intellectual entitled "Nationalism Unleashed" as well as an
interesting editorial entitled "Looking Beyond NATO."
Cheers,
Jim

James Le Sueur
Department of History and Political Science
University of La Verne
1950 Third Street
La Verne, California  91750
office:  (909) 593-3511 x4219
fax: (909) 392-2709
e-mail:  lesueurj-AT-ulv.edu

Hello Jen,

I will suggest three resources. Mind you, these sources
reflect -- to some extent -- my own position.

Firstly, Znet < http:/www.znet.org> has a fantastic page on the on-going
conflict.

Secondly, Andre Gunder Frank, a radical sociologist, has a webpage that
contains many excellent articles. URL is:
< http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/agfrank/nato_kosovo/>

Lastly, the present issue of New Left Review (no. 234), titled The
Imperialism of Human Rights, is focused on the on-going war. It contains
articles by Tariq Ali, Slavoj Zizek (he also has an article in the latest
issue of The Nation, and the last time I checked, he was cheering the NATO
attack), Edward Said, Terry Eagleton, Mike Davis etc.


Amandeep



Said & Chomsky have written recently on the subject: I posted Said's
perhaps here and posted Said's and an excerpt from Chomsky in Arabic-Info.
This piece by Said, among others of his cultural writings, may be found at
two websites:

(1) Al-Ahram Weekly, Egypt
    URL: http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/
    http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/1998/401/op2.htm

(2) ScholarsBase: http://msanews.mynet.net/Scholars/Said/


Chomsky's full text is on Znet.  You may want to read the printed
form in the new issue, June '99, of Harper's Magazine.

M. Deeb

-------------------------------------
Department of Comparative Literature,
University of Alberta,
Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada T6G 2E6

Off.: (780) 492 -7456
Fax:  (780) 492 -2715










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