US Policy Towards Secession in the Balkans and Effectiveness of de Facto Partition

"In the second paper, Improving US-Russian Relations Through Peacekeeping Operations, Beth Makros and Jeremy Saunders use Bosnia and Abkkhazia peacekeeping interventions as case studies to show the need for, and possible strategic benefits from, improving cooperation during combined or multinational peacekeeping operations. Not only do they outline the major weaknesses of Russian peacekeeping efforts and spell-out the differences between Russian and American peacekeeping doctrine, but they identify a major US weakness in combined settings: the lack of US peacekeepers[alpha] knowledge of the Russian language and culture and how such knowledge would improve the ability of US troops to effectively function in the field with their Russian counterparts within these combined settings. Their paper highlights both the wider potential benefits that can be gained from multinational operations and the further complexity and requirements they generate in order to ensure such broad success."--INSS website.