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The Balkan states bear the weight of a historically turbulent past and within them there are national, racial and religious minorities, which so far have contributed to instability, rather than being bridges of good neighborliness.

Among the Balkan peoples there are "open" conflict issues such as revisionism, territorial claims, irredentism and grandiose idealism, which are reinforced by foreign centers and updated by current demographic changes. Any implementation of even part of these would signal border changes with unpredictable consequences.

The collapse of the USSR caused a power vacuum in the Balkans and the dissolution of Yugoslavia, while creating a new dynamic in the competition between the USA and Russia in the region. The consequence of these developments is that to this day there exist "fragile balances" and ferments, which are evolving into a race, on the one hand, for the integration of the Balkan states into the Euro-Atlantic institutions and, on the other hand, for Russia to maintain the greatest possible influence in an area in which it has always had strong foundations (historical, racial, cultural, religious).

This conflict created artificial, precarious and unsustainable states, such as Bosnia & Herzegovina and Skopje, as well as unstable political entities, such as Kosovo, which are potential foci of general conflagration in the region.