The new Europe is not being born in Brussels or Washington but in Kosovo. Kosovo may mark the end of the United Nations' involvement in Europe so far as security issues are concerned. Kosovo is leading to a strengthening of Europe's identity at the expense of that of its sovereign states. Central and Eastern Europe were not prepared for this development. Only a few years after they regained their sovereignty with the end of Communism, these states are being obliged to give it up again.
International law is of little help in making sense of the post-Kosovo world.
Three fundamental principles are in conflict. At the Congress of Berlin somebody pointed out that the new dividing line in Europe ran through Bulgaria. Bismarck replied that we are here for the peace of Europe rather than the happiness of Bulgarians. There are two ways to conduct foreign policy. More lives have been lost in crusades, with their excessive self-righteousness, than in statesman's wars.