Between War and Peace: How to Manage Threats to Global Security (Chat with Anthony Lake) (Interview‪)‬

What aspects of the conflict in Bosnia made it possible for the United States to intervene? I think you need to look at any potential action both internationally and within the conflict itself. The primary obstacle to our intervention was not within Bosnia, or even within the region, but lay in the nature of our relationship with our European allies. Their strong commitment to the UN humanitarian mission in Bosnia meant that they had troops on the ground whom they believed would be put at great risk by a US military intervention. Therefore, they opposed our taking as strong measures as we wanted to. This was a source of some frustration to us, but I would occasionally remind myself that if there were US troops on the ground somewhere, and the Europeans took unilateral military action and put our troops at risk, all hell would break loose in Washington. We struggled with that for the first few years.