Europe's new frontier

摘要

Of the many horrors of the Yugoslav wars, the wanton destruction of the Croatian town of Vukovar by Serb artillery, as well as the expulsion or massacre of much of its population in 1991, was one of the worst. Europe was impotent to stop the bloodshed, despite the vainglorious claim by Jacques Poos, Luxembourg's then foreign minister, that "the hour of Europe has dawned". In the end, the wars were halted only by American-led military action and diplomacy.