Separatism and Secession

Brad De Long delong at econ.Berkeley.EDU
Sun Mar 28 14:50:14 PST 1999



>Heroic tales of streaming
>voters are being mobilized to defend an imperial mission. I really haven't
>heard any convincing explanation of the imperial mission...
>
>Doug

Neither have I.

Bombing is a good way to kill civilians and a very good way to destroy a lot of economic infrastructure. It is a bad way to get dictators to change their minds, and a good way to solidify their domestic political support.

I *think* what is going on is payback for Bosnia--that because you, Milosevic, were a prime architect of large-scale ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, we are going to bomb your country and make your people suffer.

But this is not a rational foreign policy: it assumes that there is an entity called "Serbia" which is identical with and bears responsibility for the actions of Milosevic--and it assumes that punishment inflicted upon "Serbia" is punishment inflicted upon Milosevic...

Brad DeLong



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