The nationalist politics that plagued Yugoslavia were hardly unique. Just as Slobodan Milosevic did in Serbia, many former communists discovered a new attachment to nationalist politics as part of their effort to hang on to power. The key difference is that these nationalist passions were far more dangerous in Yugoslavia. Unlike most other states in the region, Yugoslavia was not a nation-state with a clearly dominant national group; it packed an incredible amount of diversity into its small area.

Moreover, unlike in Czechoslovakia, breaking up was hard to do. Yugoslavia’s many ethnic groups did not fall into clearly distinct regions. Serbs, Yugoslavia’s most populous nationality, were present in large numbers in areas of Bosnia and Croatia that were not adjacent to Serbia. And Serbia itself contains large Albanian, Hungarian and Muslim minorities. Only the Slovenes in Slovenia overwhelmingly dominated their republic within Yugoslavia and have few co-ethics in the other republics.

Milosevic’s determination to dominate Yugoslavia made Slovenia’s desire to depart the country easy to understand. However, Slovenia’s relatively easy departure after a very brief “war,” while fortunate for itself, upset the delicate ethnic balance within Yugoslavia and arguably sealed the fate of the rest of the country. Once Slovenia left, Croatia was determined to follow. And Bosnian Muslims and Croats did not want to remain in a Yugoslavia dominated by Serbs who were equally determined to stay.

Perhaps it is also critical that Yugoslavia was not part of the Soviet bloc. Most other post-Communist nations were concerned with establishing independence from Moscow in one form or another. Tito’s break with Stalin meant that the energies of Yugoslavia’s various nationalities were directed against each other instead of the USSR.

The many wars have delayed the country’s political and economic transition. Serbia today reminds me very much of my visits to Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Estonia, and Latvia only a few years after the collapse of Communism. Like those countries were then, Serbia is struggling to establish not just the accoutrements of a democracy but the civic society and institutions critical to making it function. Similarly, one can see many signs of an emerging market economy. Many new small businesses have opened with goods that few can afford. The closing of failed state companies has resulted in extremely painful levels of unemployment.

The key difference is that Serbia is now doing this after experiencing years of post-Communist war and authoritarianism. Citizens of countries like Poland and the Czech Republic were often prepared to put up with some degree of sacrifice as part of the painful transition from Communism. However, after over ten years of declining living standards, the average Serbian is not really up for a round of painful economic structural adjustment.

Serbia is further burdened by major population shifts. Thousands of Serb refugees have arrived in the country from Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo with almost nothing. Many of these refugees come from rural parts of Yugoslavia and have few urban skills. And Serbia has found it hard to provide them with decent housing.

Even worse, Serbia has experienced an enormous brain drain. Many of Serbia’s best concluded that they and their country had no future under Milosevic and chose to leave and build a new life for themselves. The economy remains bleak and people continue to leave. One of the more depressing moments of my trip was having to decline a request to write a recommendation by a young man eager to study in the United States (and implicitly get out of here) who I had met only five minutes previously. Serbia is now trying to rebuild without the people who are most critical to the success of the project.

While writing this blog, I received an email from a gentle reader (all readers are gentle according to Miss Manners) who said he planned to move to Bulgaria if Bush was reelected. He wrote that he preferred the honest and open corruption of Sofia to the sanctimony of Republicans who preach even as they rob you blind. I mentioned this email to a group of young Serbians who have formed an NGO to monitor elections in Serbia. They thought he was completely out of his mind.

And yet, despite problems extending to almost any area one can name from democracy to unemployment to education to health care, and despite thinking that maybe their compatriots who line up for visas at embassies have the right idea, these young Serbians must continue to have some hope as they volunteer their time to try to assure fair elections in their country.

As I get ready to leave for Montenegro, the warm welcome I received from so many Serbians and the obvious potential of the people leaves me hoping for Serbia too.