St. Joseph Church
Bristol, Connecticut

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti
Pastoral Minister

With the end of the Cold War a U.S. State Department official, Francis Fukyama, announced the end of history. The age of ideologies and of the dictator was over, democratic republicanism would now prevail and war would be no more ! A brief examination of this decade of the 1990's refutes this thesis, at least at present. We have witnessed and are witnessing brutal civil, ethnic and tribal wars that have given rise to the term, ethnic cleansing. Political scientist Michael Brown puts it this way:

"People have been stunned by both the breadth and depth of the ethnic conflicts that are now taking place in many regions."

 The most recent war in Kosovo, a province of Yugoslavia and ancient center of Serbian culture, is the latest example of this new type of war. Efforts by the Kosovo Liberation Army, composed of non-Serbian peoples, to separate Kosovo from greater Serbia, the murderous policies and actions of Serbian President Milosevic, and historical antipathies between Orthodox Serbs and largely Muslim Kosovars has led to the present war involving NATO and Serbia. This war has led to a humanitarian disaster with over 500,000 Kosovars driven from their land to neighboring states, and the execution of perhaps thousands of young men accused of being members of the KLA. Furthermore, we are witnessing a refugee problem in this war, which has added to the growing world-wide refugee problem in other areas of conflict, contributing to the monumental logistical problems to aid the refugees faced by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

Today, such ethnic, tribal and civil conflicts exist in Afghanistan, Angola, Armenia, Azerbazian, Burma, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Liberia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Tajikistan. But there are other hot spots in Bangladesh, Belgium, Bhutan, Burundi, Estonia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Iraq, Latvia, Lebanon, Mali, Moldova, Niger, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, the Philippines, Romania, Rwanda, Spain and Turkey. And the prospects for conflict in Russia is becoming a growing concern in the light of Russia's failed economy and growing social conflict.

These conflicts pose enormous challenges to the international community. The present United Nations system of collective security--non-functioning through most of the Cold War, and crippled at present--was designed to address unjust aggressive actions of one state against another (cf. Glossary for Catholic Teaching on War and Peace). However, in the present context, the United Nations finds itself greatly hampered by the lack of cooperation on behalf of the major powers and grossly underfunded by those powers--this is especially the case with the United States--as well as not being designed to deal effectively with internal wars of states. The present nature of conflicts largely exist within weak or failed states with weak centers or governments, strong centered states with ethnic minorities, and largely artificial states, or a combination of all of these. Also, trouble within such states is often aggravated by outside states wishing to take advantage of the situation for its own national purposes.

In Kosovo, the ancient center of Serbian culture, there exists a struggle for Kosovar independence embodied most notably in the KLA insurgency, and the refusal of the center--Serbia and the present Milosevic regime's to let go of Kosovo and to ethnically cleanse the region of non-Serbs. This has led to the present crisis and has sown the seeds of future crisis in the region. A major factor in this war is the geographic location of the Balkans states.

The Balkan States are situated at a geopolitical-political crossroads, or fault line area, between different cultures. With the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the sixth century A.D. the area was characterized by rule by local nobles and the like. It soon became a part of the Holy Roman Empire that emerged during the rise of the Charlemagne that bordered on the Byzantine Empire and eventually the battleground between Islam and the West. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century the Balkans were at the center of the struggles between the Hapsburg, Ottoman, Romanov and British Empires. This tragic history saw the constant re-drawing of national boundaries of the Balkans by the imperialist powers and shifting ethnic and religious populations leading to the present tensions and conflicts. After World War II the antagonisms of the various religious and ethnic groups was suppressed by the Yugoslavian strongman, Marshall Tito.

The end of the Cold War and the death of Tito has led to the opening up of religious and ethnic divisions in the former Yugoslavia--with murderous results. The wars involving Catholic Croatia, Orthodox Serbia, Muslim and Orthodox Bosnia have been characterized by levels of brutality not seen in Europe since the end of WWII. Such developments are the result of many factors, among them is the attempt to finally draw national boundaries in accord with a nation's or peoples' aspirations and historical understanding of national boundaries. The major problem here is that those boundaries are in dispute--coupled with the resurgence of a rabid nationalism--these present conflicts risk flaring up into future and more deadly conflicts.

The Balkan states have a tragic past. They have been at the fault line or the intersect point of the Muslim Ottoman Empire, the Latin West and the Byzantine East. They have been in the middle of the bloodiest wars of this century and now are caught in competing national and ethnic aspirations. The present war in Kosovo and Serbia is a product of that extraordinary mix of historical events and people. Such is fertile ground for strongmen that seek power by promoting racial, ethnic and tribal antagonisms and hatred. Some political theorists like, Samuel Huntington, would suggest that such conflicts are the

result of a clash of civilizations, Kosovo being a fault line war--the place where different civilizations intersect or collide within a state. However, such an explanation cannot account for other factors. Still, even if he is partially correct, this places an imperative on interreligious and intercultural dialogue aimed at understanding and cooperative efforts for peace.

The present war in Kosovo and Serbia is also a part of the larger international system that combines state actors, transnational actors and organizations, various NGOs and sub-groups. This system operates in similar fashion to other systems in that various actions within the system can have unintended and unforseeable consequences. Small variations in the system can have profound consequences, both positive and tragic ! This present war in Kosovo sits in the broader context of global relations. (cf. Charted Political Approaches to War and Peace: Liberalism, Realism and Socialism).

The post Cold War world is witnessing the emergence of the problems of nuclear proliferation in Indian and Pakistan--as new declared nuclear weapons states--and the emergence of several nations aspiring to acquire them. India and Pakistan also have proceeded with medium and intermediate range ballistic missile tests. India has stated that her goal is to acquire world power status with global reach. This is only possible by developing ICBM capability (cf.The State of Nuclear Proliferation). These developments are unintended consequences of the retention of sizable nuclear weapons stockpiles by the superpower nuclear nations, the use of power projection around the world by the great powers and armed forces of those powers since the end of WWII. An Indian general was asked what he thought were the lessons of the Gulf War of 1991. He stated, "If you are going to take on the U.S. you must have nuclear weapons." An obvious unintended consequence of the Gulf War whose future developments are unforseeable at present.

Since the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet military machine, Russia has become more reliant on tactical nuclear weapons for defending its regional its national security interests. This, coupled with the general and alarming deterioration of command, control and communications over its nuclear weapons could portent ominous possibilities for the future (cf. A Decent Boom). The NATO bombing of Serbia has also led the Russian Duma to refuse--at present-- ratifying the START II treaty that would result in eliminating MIRVed ICBMs. Such treaties would go a considerable distance to bringing about a greater degree of crisis stability to the continued nuclear stand off between the United States and Russia ( cf.Strategic Nuclear Forces of the United States and Russia After START II).

All of these developments are taking place in the context of the emerging superpower, China. Revelations about stolen nuclear weapons secrets by the Chinese suggest an attempt by China to speed up the geopolitical calculus of national power. The growing Chinese economy, technical prowess and increasingly sophisticated military capabilities are creating a multipolar strategic and political world order. China, along with Russia, has expressed and continues to express, great concern about U.S. plans to build a missile defense. Such plans threaten to erode the deterrent--or second strike--capability of Chinese and Russian nuclear arsenals--especially after implementation of START II and possibly a START III treaty. The 1972 ABM treaty would be scuttled wit the prospect of a new arms race in the future. Also, China has stated that a Ballistic Missile Defense employed in the East Asian theater to safeguard Taiwan would be perceived as a threat to China's security and could lead to war!

The Christian mission to work for justice and peace in the world requires an understanding of the historical, political, military, economic and social causes of injustice and conflict. The Kosovo crisis, and those like it, introduce us to a war situation in which a clear moral evaluation of the conflict(s) is most difficult for many. (cf. Teachings, Thoughts, and Prayers for Justice-seekers and Peacemakers).  For Roman Catholics two moral options are available for assessing the morality of war, the pacifist and just war option. The pacifist option rejects the use of armed force to resolve conflicts. The just war option allows for the use of lethal armed force under very strict conditions. However, both options maintain a presumption against war--that is, war is evil in and of itself because it visits suffering on human beings and the creation (cf. Roman Catholic Teaching on War and Peace, and Principled Nonviolence and Nonviolent Actions for Justice and Peace).

The just war option consist of the following conditions: the use of force must be a last resort after all other means of handling the conflict have been exhausted; it must be declared by legitimate authority; it must be done for the right intention as a defensive war to fend off unjust aggression; it must be for a just cause to restore justice and peace; there must be a strong probability of success so that injured rights can be restored without undo damage; the principle of proportionality must be fulfilled, that is, the good to be accomplished by using armed force must be demonstrated--prior to its use--to yield a greater proportional good than the evil means used; and finally there must be non-combatant immunity, i.e., civilians may not be targeted in war. All of these conditions must be fulfilled to determine if a war is just. However, given the lethality and the awesome violence of the modern automated battlefield many feel this is impossible.

The Roman Catholic teaching on war and peace do not sit in an historical vacuum. Roman Catholc teaching must address the present nature and means of war. The calamitous and destructive nature of the modern battlefield has compelled new ways of fighting wars. Even the U.S. military recognizes the scale of horror of modern war that it has investigated drug therapies that would help soldiers to remain calm amidst the awesome carnage around them. And so the theory of the just war will continue to suffer from the modern developments and complexity of war into the next century. What is becoming increasingly apparent is the limits of the just war theory in the nuclear world and the destructive conventional war world. The crisis is Kosovo and other regions of the world will force us to think more in terms of prevention than in accepting business as usual. This will require a profound study and understanding of the areas of conflict is the world, and a commitment to justice for all peoples that will require sacrifices of the most affluent countries. In effect, we have no choice. The spread of weapons of mass destruction, possible resource scarcity, and global climate changes and their consequences call us to what the Second Vatican Council uttered in 1965, "to examine war with a new attitude."

Submitted,
Deacon Robert M, Pallotti, D.Min.
Pastoral Minister
St. Joseph Church
Bristol, Ct.

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Created 5/6/1999
Revised 5/21/1999