Lucy Moore blog

In on this?

Lucy Moore — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 20:00:51 GMT

About a month ago I started blogging for Foreign Policy magazine. Just recently the blog opened up for comments. And what regional coverage has elicited the most heated comment debate so far? The Balkans… One mention of FYROM’s name issue and off they went. Day one of the debate and “Damn Turks!” has already been dropped. (It’s always their fault isn’t it.) Now, I know many of you on here enjoy contributing your two cents, so if you want to get in on this, check it out:http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node

Let the Blame game begin

Lucy Moore — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:00:18 GMT

The situation in Kosovo is "a car wreck about to happen,” it has caused a steady decline in U.N. legitimacy, and, in the end, it’s all Europe’s fault -- at least according to John Bolton. Bolton, the U.S. representative to the U.N. in 2005 and 2006, spoke on Friday in Washington at an event entitled, “The Implications of Kosovo’s Independence for U.S. Foreign Policy.” And what are those implications, according to him? Little more than a chance for the U.S. to get back at Europe for its criticism of America’s post-9/11 international blunders.Calling Kosovo’s pending independence a “fundamentally European solution,” he noted that independence for Kosovo came out of not one but two instances in which the authority of the U.N.’s Security Council was largely dismissed -- first in NATO’s 1999 air strike and now in the current failure by the international community to back a change in Kosovo’s status with a U.N. resolution.And in a moment of bold directness, Bolton told any European citizen sitting in the audie

Washington, DC: Beyond the White House

Lucy Moore — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:00:21 GMT

It’s official. I am a DC resident. True, I do carry a North Carolina driver’s license, and I will still vote in the Tar Heel state come next November, but in the wee hours of one Sunday morning a few weeks back, I was initiated into the reality of life in Washington, DC – I was mugged. I had been out at a party not too far from my neighborhood, and at the end of the night my roommate and I decided to walk the mile or so back to our house. Just before turning down our small side street, I heard someone running behind us. Despite the late hour, my suburban naiveté kicked in, and I said to my roommate, “Scoot over, a jogger’s coming.” But instead of passing us, the “jogger” grabbed me from behind, yelled, “give me your purse,” yanked it off my shoulder, and ran away. (I should point out, this was a truly mild mugging. I’ve heard stories of friends beaten black and blue by gangs and knocked unconscious w

Chuck Norris tells America how it’s gonna’ be.

Lucy Moore — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:00:21 GMT

We have almost a full year to go before the 2008 elections in the US, but already our potential presidential candidates are in full campaign mode. I’m not much of a political junky, but this campaign spot, scheduled to hit the Iowan airwaves today, was just too amazing to not pass on. It comes from oddball Republican Mike Huckabee... ...and it was all made possible by the "prayers and sacrificial givings" of his dedicated supporters (see his official blog). What's not to love about American politics? (I'm not sure the youtube linked worked...but the video can also be viewed here.)

Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week – with a Balkan twist

Lucy Moore — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 20:00:51 GMT

Fit neatly between Columbus Day and Halloween, this past week was unofficially declared Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week – a week of “national efforts to oppose the lies [of the academic left] and to rally American students to defend their country” against the threat of Islam. In an unlikely blend of Red Scare themes and civil rights movement tactics, students on college campuses across America were encouraged to hold sit-ins, canvas their schools with fliers like these, and attend lectures by the likes of Ann Coulter and Rick Santorum. The week, intended to draw attention to the threat posed by Muslim jihad to the American way of life, has also proved a celebration of anti-Islamism, anti-feminism, anti-Semitism, and right winged Christian conservativism. But as I myself am no longer a member of any college community, I figured I’d easily be able steer clear of the whole thing. Then midweek I d

"Bloggers now threatened as much as journalists"

Lucy Moore — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 01:00:28 GMT

Reporters without borders released its annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index, with only Ukraine and Belarus ranking lower than Serbia among European states. I was surprised to see just how far down the US ranked. Last year it actually came in below Serbia.This year's report also concludes that bloggers are now threatened as much as journalists in traditional media -- a good sign for the power, though not comforting for the blogger. An explanation of how the list was compiled can be found here.

Hollywood goes to Bosnia, again.

Lucy Moore — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 19:00:53 GMT

Two months ago I packed my bags and left Belgrade to take a job in Washington, DC Đ not in anyway an answer to the BIA vs. CIA question, I should point out.At the moment I am working for The Atlantic, a slightly left of center, general interest publication with a long and respected history. Recently, in an introductory conversation with a blogger for the magazine’s newly expanded website, I mentioned my year in Serbia and my interest in South Eastern Europe. His response: “Oh, the Balkans Đ that’s so esoteric. Aren’t you about ten years too late on that?”(As a side note, Atlantic writer Robert Kaplan was not “ten years too late.” He jumpstarted his journalism career in the early 1990s with his travelogue of the region, Balkan Ghosts Đ a popular yet quintessentially ignorant, Western account of the region on the eve of Yugoslavia’s dissolution. To give you a sense of Kaplan's take on the place, he begins by attributing the origins of Nazism to Balkan hatred, and that’s only the introduction.)While shocked

The ICTY: Justice in a box

Lucy Moore — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 17:00:36 GMT

“As I was passing by, I saw that there were dead bodies, corpses, lying on the grass in front of the school bathroom… There may have been a dozen corpses,” said a small, female voice with a British accent over the loud speaker. The voice gave sound to the man’s face that appeared on the television screen overhead. The broad shouldered owner of the muted face and the translated statement sat before me, his back to the pane of glass that separated him and the court room from me and a well-dressed young man one row over. Excepting the guard who stood by the door, the two of us were the only audience that day to the afternoon session of the most recent Srebrenica case underway at the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia). At the invitation of a friend of mine now living in The Hague, I went to the Netherlands to visit her and to watch the Tribunal.During my visit I attended three separate cases. F

The Balkans of the Balkans

Lucy Moore — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:00:58 GMT

The Montenegrin shore.

In the context of Europe, the Balkan Peninsula has traditionally been reputed as a land of beautifully mysterious landscapes, poor transportation and dangerously passionate people, all of which contribute to the centuries-old perception of the region as the backward, uncivilized corner of Europe. But even the Balkans has its Balkans, and when the context is narrowed to this region only, Montenegro becomes the new proverbial armpit. One could easily argue that Kosovo with its ethnic divides and instability is more deserving of the title “the Balkans of the Balkans,” but while Kosovo has been swamped by the international community and completely divided from the rest of the region by a longstanding wall of ignorance, Montenegro has figuratively played the role of the thick-headed younger brother, left behind in the village to live by the land and age old traditions while the rest trade in pitchforks for

To Kosovo and back

Lucy Moore — Tue, 29 May 2007 14:00:28 GMT

Prizren

“Remember, if you get into trouble, just yell, ‘Živela Srbija.’ It’s better to go out with a bang,” a friend of mine remarked in jest as I left his apartment on my way to the station to catch a bus down to Kosovo. “I would tell you ‘lepo se provedi,’” his roommate added with a wink, “but I know you’re going to Priština."Quite honestly, I was nervous about the trip. Since my arrival last fall I had wanted to see the province I had heard so much about, and an Albanian friend in Priština had extended an open invitation, but the occasional reports over the last six months or so of bombed UN or OSCE vehicles troubled me a bit, as did the idea of my unnecessary American presence further complicating an already precarious situation. But when three American students called me to say they were heading down to Kosovo two weeks ago, I decided to join them.The four of us arrived at the Kosovo border at two in the morning an