Putin shows NATO his dangerous Balkan hand

In 1888, a generation before the First World War started, the German arch-statesman Otto von Bismarck predicted that a great European war was coming over some “damn foolish thing in the Balkans.” Tensions in Southeastern Europe have a troublesome habit of dragging in outside powers, sometimes with terrible consequences.

The region is experiencing another bout of squabbling, which threatens to involve NATO if tensions keep rising. The Atlantic Alliance had to intervene militarily twice in the 1990s to resolve Balkan wars emanating from the collapse of Yugoslavia. Russia, weak and divided in the wake of communism’s painful downfall, failed to intervene against NATO. We may not be so lucky the next time.