Small State Security in the Balkans (review)

Reviews 215 Atlantic Treaty Organization in the post-World War II period. It may be argued, of course, that such relationships limit the independence of a small and vulnerable state like Greece. On the other hand, non-alignment for such a state may well prove anything but a blessing . Expectedly, Professor Barros' well-argued and balanced account of Greece's predicament in the mid-1930s is free from rash judgments. John S. Koliopoulos University of Thessaloniki Aurel Braun. Small State Security in the Balkans. Totawa, New Jersey: Barnes and Noble Books, 1983. Pp. xi & 324. Dr. Braun attempts a study but achieves little more than a survey . To his credit, he recognizes this, and correctly attributes the incompleteness of his analysis to the limitations inherent in his subject matter. The six states he treats—Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia—are too diverse in political system, economy , political alignment, trading pattern, ethnicity, culture and national self-conception to be treated systematically. As Dr. Braun points out, behavioralist, quantitative methods fail for lack of information , particularly in the cases of Albania, Bulgaria and Romania. Transaction flow analysis is misleading when transactions are few and are falsely reported. Elite interviews are not useful when ideology predetermines the dialogue. The vocabulary and methodology of integration theory are barely applicable between Greece and Turkey , between Turkey and Bulgaria, or between Albania and anyone at all. Moreover, two inimical kinds of integration occur in the Balkans , the western pluralist community and what Keohane has called the eastern "Al Capone Alliance" where members pay for protection . As Dr. Braun observes, then, systems analysis, functionalism, integration theory and organization theory yield meager results, or are actually misleading if they encourage the researcher to ignore political nuances. Dr. Braun prudently avoids such methods and proposes instead a desirable standard or end toward which relations among the Balkan states could move. The process that leads to this end he labels "concordization" and defines as "the development of certain norms of conduct that place an emphasis on the mediation of intra-regional 216 Reviews disputes and make recourse to the use of force increasingly difficult. ' ' Other aspects of concordization include "increased interaction in such areas as trade and communications ... a steady encouragement of multilateralism in addition to bilateral cooperation . . . and attempts by the states of the region to limit external economic, political , military and psychological influences that would divide the region " (27). This , Braun admits, amounts to little more than a prescription for more harmonious relations in the region, and it leaves a scholar with little to do but chart the extent to which the six Balkan states are fulfilling these objectives. There is disappointingly little to chart, but the author dutifully and evenhandedly records what he can. His outline of chapters implies a judgment on the progress toward concordization , since he has adopted a "double-entry" design—Warsaw Pact/Comecon cooperation on the left and (in a separate set of chapters ) NATO/EEC cooperation on the right. The anomalous state, Albania, receives little treatment and in fact is mentioned only in short references on approximately thirty scattered pages. There are in addition two short essays, (one east, one west) one on "The Bulgarian Stumbling Block," the other on "The Greek/Turkish Dispute ". These receive the same overview treatment that is typical of the rest of the book. Since he can't be systematic with this material, Dr. Braun has settled for being comprehensive. As a result he is seldom incisive or surprising. There is a great deal of information here, and it is presented in an orderly fashion, but there is little revealing analysis. Dr. Braun's final assessment of progress toward "concordization ": "A great deal more could have been done but what has been achieved is not insignificant. Thus we would argue that the process of concordization is perceptible but we would also admit that it may be barely so" (273, the text's concluding lines). It is an honest assessment by a scholar who set himself an unrewarding task. Stephen Wrage Washington, D. C. George Thaniel. Beyond the Moment: Selected Poems 1960-1976, tr. Edward Phinney. New York: Vantage Press, 1983. Seawave & Snowfall: Selected Poems 1960-1982...