The Wreckage Reconsidered : Five Oxymorons from Balkan Deconstruction

The Wreckage Reconsidered examines Yugoslav disintegration in order to suggest, through the Yugoslav example, that a reexamination of national security strategy and foreign policy concerns for the United States in a new century is not only a wise choice but an imperative one.

P. H. Liotta examines this subject by means of the oxymoron, which he defines through its specific Balkan application: a force or issue so contrary in nature that it may remain problematic no matter what approach or resolution might be offered.

The five oxymorons Liotta considers are: U.S. strategic perspectives as they have applied to the Balkan example; the rise of the "parastate" as a result of recent Balkan history; a strategy of chaos, as it may have applied in the last Balkan war and as it may "target" American strategic culture in the future; religion, a cultural and political force in the Balkans as it may have provided the occasion, though not the cause, for the outbreak of conflict; and, finally, the recognition that NATO enlargement may bring both unintended and unwelcome consequences.