Rewind and Reconnoiter: War Won’t Be Coming Back to the Balkans with Dimitar Bechev

In 2022, Dimitar Bechev wrote “War Won’t be Coming Back to the Balkans” for War on the Rocks, in which he argues that, “while Russia has an incentive to open a second front against the West, its partners and fellow travelers in the Balkans have much to lose from an escalation.” If Europe applied pressure and worked with partners in the Balkans, he argued, Russia would struggle to spark conflict in the region. Two years on, we asked him to look back on his article and argument. Read more below. Photo credit: Sgt. Stanford Toran, U.S. Army In your article, you argue