Part of the political elite and a good part of the public in Serbia are torn between concern about wars and military aggressions in the world and some kind of malice that the bear played in front of other people's doors.
Especially around Greenland, with the obligatory reminder that Danish company praised how she was among the first to recognize Kosovo. The USA under Donald Trump, as well as Russia, are acting unapologetically.
International law is being violated today as it has always been violated, but the development still carries bad news, says foreign policy analyst Dimitrije Milić in a big interview for the new issue of "Vremena", which will hit newsstands on Thursday (January 22).
Better and fragile international law
"International law, international organizations and the existence of international rules are the best guarantee that small and weaker states can have," says Milić.
Until a few years ago, the powers, violating the law, tried to at least somehow obtain the legitimacy of their military actions. The excuses ranged from security threats to the alleged prevention of humanitarian crises.
"As long as states sought some kind of international legitimacy for their actions, it was positive even when there was no legality, because it meant that someone in the world cared about it," says Milić.
"In recent examples, we see less and less the need to seek any legitimacy, and states are increasingly open to unilaterally fulfill their interests, and the audience that will condemn it either no longer exists or its opinion is no longer important."
Like in a fable
In Serbia, he adds, part of the political and public scene, under the trauma of the nineties, is now under the delusion that these world movements and the revision of the global order can correspond to Serbia.
But, as warned by Milić, the head of the New Third Way organization, this is wrong because the small ones have nothing to hope for without international law and because the breakdown of order leads to smaller investments and more space for the big powers to play behind Serbia.
"It seems that people are looking forward to the crisis of the world order in Serbia not because of our concrete benefit, but because of other people's (Western) harm. It sounds like the fox from Aesop's fable who, when she couldn't reach the juicy grapes, said that those grapes were probably sour, so it was better that she didn't eat them."
Read the entire interview in the new issue of "Vremena" from Thursday, January 22. Or subscribe now to printed or digital edition
