In this block we will study three major regions--East Asia, the Middle East and Europe--areas where key interests of the United States have been and continue to be involved, where the United States has fought major wars in this century, where long-standing security commitments apply, and where large contingents of our armed forces are deployed. While challenges to important U.S. interests have and will arise from other parts of the world, the combination of our resource needs, their economic importance and linkages, and the presence of states with large arsenals of weapons of mass destruction means that these regions will come to the top of the priority list for any administration now and in the foreseeable future. We will begin this block with the Asian context, turn next to Russia (both a European and an Asian power) and Europe, and conclude with the Middle East.
CHRONOLOGY OF MAJOR EVENTS IN EUROPE DURING 1995 - 1999
February 1995.- In the secessionist republic of Chechnya, fighting expands beyond Grozny, the capital, as Russian forces continue to pursue fighters loyal to Chechen president Dzhokhar Dudayev. The government says Chechen rebels violated the cease-fire, which officially ended on February 19th, with an assault on Grozny.
President Slobodan Milosevic rejects an offer by the so-called Contact group (US, France, Russia, Britain, and Germany) to lift trade sanctions on Serbia in return for Serbia's recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.
June 1995.- French President Jacques Chirac announces resumption of nuclear testing in the South Pacific.
Russia announces it will activate its membership in NATO's Partnership for Peace Program, which will make Russia an associate member of NATO for an indefinite trial period.
September 1995.- NATO announces that it will suspend air attacks after Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Bosnian Serb military commander General Ratko Mladic agree to withdraw all heavy weaponry outside the 12.5-mile "exclusion zone" around Sarajevo.
France begins nuclear testing on Mururoa atoll.
October 1995.- Leaders from nearly all the UN's member nations gather in New York to celebrate the organization's 50th anniversary.
U.S. President Bill Clinton announces that the Bosnian Serbs, the Bosnian government, and Croatia have agreed to an American-mediated cease-fire to take effect October 10, 1995.
U.S.-sponsored peace talks between the presidents of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia (representing the Bosnian Serbs) begin in Dayton, Ohio.
December 1995.- The 1st NATO troops arrive in Bosnia to prepare for the nearly 60,000 NATO troops that are to enforce the Dayton peace accords of November 21, 1999.
Government officials in the Ukraine and the Group of Seven (G7) nations sign an agreement under which the Ukraine will close its Chernobyl nuclear power plant by 2000.
January 1996.- Government officials in France announce that France will no longer conduct nuclear weapons testing.
February 1996.- The Bosnian government announces that the siege of Sarajevo is officially over.
France's President Jacques Chirac announces that the armed forces will be reduced about one-third its current size and become an all-volunteer force within the next 6 years.
March 1996.- Serbian President Slobodan Milosovic, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, and acting Bosnian President Ejup Ganic meet in Geneva to officially reaffirm their commitment to the November 20 Dayton peace accords.
April 1996.- Russian forces reportedly halt attacks in the secessionist Russian republic of Chechnya. President Boris Yeltsin called for peace negotiations with the rebels and an end to the fighting.
June 1996.- France's President Jacques Chirac announces that France will resume participation in NATO. France pulled out of the organization in 1966.
August 1996.- In Moscow, President Boris Yeltsin is sworn in at the Kremlin as the first democratically elected president in Russian history.
March 1997.- In Helsinki, US President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin conclude a summit meeting with an agreement that extends the 1993 Start II Treaty deadline to eliminate land-based multiple warheads to the end of 2003.
March 1998.- The countries of the so-called contact group on the former Yugoslavia (the US France, Britain, Russia, Italy, and Germany) agree to impose modest diplomatic and economic sanctions on Yugoslavia for its "unacceptable use of force" against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
May 1998.- In Birmingham, England, on the last day of the annual summit meeting of the world's 7 leading industrial democracies, Russia is formally made a member.
June 1998.- In Albania, Prime Minister Fatos Nano calls on NATO to deploy troops along the border between Albania and the Serbian province of Kosovo. President Rexhep Mejdani demands that Serbia call off its offensive in Kosovo.
April 1999.- NATO planes continue to bomb targets throughout Yugoslavia, including war-torn Serbian province of Kosovo. NATO says the bombing will continue until Yugoslavia meets all NATO conditions: Granting full political autonomy to Kosovo, withdrawing Serbian forces from the province, and allowing foreign troops to police the agreement.
May 1999.- Russia and other members of the Group of Eight (G8) draft a plan to end the conflict in Yugoslavia; the plan calls for withdrawal of Serbian troops and police forces from Kosovo, followed by deployment of an international military peacekeeping presence.
June 1999.- NATO halts its 78-day bombing campaign of Yugoslavia after Serbian troops begin leaving Kosovo.
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