Birth of Trump Era Divides Balkan Countries

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Much of the Balkans will be following the inauguration of the new US President on Friday with enormous interest. The birth of the Donald Trump era brings great hopes - and even greater fears - to a region already gripped by ethnic and political tensions.

The US played a key role - and made friends and foes alike - in the Balkans in the 1990s, when it led NATO strikes on Serb positions in Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia itself, which eventually brought peace to Bosnia and both peace and independence to Kosovo.  

It was also closely engaged in the settlement of ethnic and political tensions in Macedonia, and has since embraced Albania, Croatia and lately also Montenegro as strategic partners in NATO.

Yet the gradual strengthening of Russia’s role on the global and regional scene, as well as growing tensions between the two big powers, have split many Balkan countries along an East-West fault line.