UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Berkeley and The Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan Studies invite you to a lecture and discussion by Serge Trifkovic KOSOVO: A PREVENTABLE DISASTER Monday, February 4, at 5:30 p.m. 3105 Etcheverry Hall University of California, Berkeley http://www.berkeley.edu/map Introductory remarks by Dr. Jasmina Vujic Professor and Chair, Department of Nuclear Engineering A major security issue facing the Balkans, Russia, the West, and the rest, is the future of the Serbian province of Kosovo. The United States and key members of the European Union are facing an important choice: to persevere in their stated intention to recognize Kosovo's forthcoming unilateral declaration of independence, or to uphold the rule of law, the UN Charter, and the key Westphalian principles, by considering - even at this late stage - some alternative solution to independence. A flawed, misguided and needlessly hasty decision on Kosovo may undermine the stability of the Balkans for decades to come. As the Serbian presidential election has shown, it could easily turn the key country in the Balkans away from the West. It would negatively impact America's ability to fight Islamic terrorism. It is bound to create unnecessary yet serious problems in our relations with Russia, and it is almost certain to produce cracks in the facade of EU unity. As Iraq has shown, predictable mistakes turn into costly disasters. It is therefore necessary to prevent them before they do so. The speaker will provide a diagnosis of the problem of Kosovo, analyze different aspects of the problem, and recommend workable and legal solutions. Dr. Serge (Srdja) Trifkovic is the Executive Director of The Lord Byron Foundation, Foreign Affairs Editor of the monthly Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture www.chroniclesmagazine.org and the author - most recently - of Defeating Jihad: How the War on Terrorism May yet Be Won, In Spite of Ourselves. Over the past four weeks Dr. Trifkovic has visited Belgrade, Rome, Bratislava and London, where he has met some of the key political figures, officials and analysts who are actively involved with the issue of Kosovo. ____________________________________________________________________________ _________ The Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan Studies was founded by the late Sir Alfred Sherman in 1994 as a non-partisan research institute devoted to studying southeastern Europe in all its aspects. The Foundation's research, publications and conferences are designed to correct the current trend of public commentary and analysis, which tends not to understand events but to construct a propagandistic version of Balkan rivalries. -------------------------- For more information e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or call 510-710-7008
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