Coming Balkan Caliphate, The: Threat Of Radical Islam To Europ

With all eyes currently focused on the widening conflict in the Middle East and the terrorist threat coming from the region, the West is in danger of overlooking a potent new battleground in the greater 'War on Terror' - the Balkans. This historically volatile region saw some of Europe's worst violence of the late 20th century in the Yugoslav Wars of Secession. During these conflicts, stunningly short-sighted and politically motivated policies of the United States and its allies directly allowed Islamic mujahedin and terrorist-related entities to establish a foothold in the region - just as with the progenitors of the Taliban a decade earlier in Afghanistan. In this work, the author argues that regional demographic and cultural trends, coinciding with an increasingly hostile attitude in the larger Muslim world over Western military actions, indicate that the lawless Balkans will become increasingly valuable as a strategic base for Islamic radicals over the next two decades. Utilising the post-al-Qaeda tactics of a decentralised jihad carried out through small, independent cells ('leaderless resistance'), while seeking to fundamentally and violently remould Muslim societies, such Balkan-based extremists pose a unique and tangible threat to Western security. Author Biography: Christopher Deliso is an American journalist and travel writer based in the Balkans. He is director of Balkanalysis.com, a leading independent Balkan news web site. He also serves as field analyst for the Economics Intelligence Unit, London, on Macedonian politics.