AUTONOMY, DEPENDENCY, SECURITY, The Montenegrin Dilemma (ESI - European Stability Initiative, 2000)
Since the Montenegrin government distanced itself from the president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, during last year's Kosovo war, Montenegro has found itself in the international spotlight. Montenegrin politicians have been courted by the West. The United States and the European Union have offered rapid and substantial financial aid - more than 300 million German marks in 1999 and 2000 - to cushion the economic effects of the conflict and the country's international isolation. NATO officials have repeated ominous but ambiguous warnings to Milosevic not to intervene. Despite this, however, little is know about how Montenegrin society really functions .... The implication is that Western policy in Montenegro should be primarily policy for Montenegro,rather than part of an international campaign to unseat Milosevic. If the international communityfocuses on the needs of Montenegrin society in the coming years, the imperatives are to preserve afunctioning democratic system where elections continue to matter, and to set about the Herculean taskof economic transition