SARAJEVO, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Experts in the Balkan state of Bosnia and Herzegovina regard the recent U.S. military strike against Venezuela and the capture of its president as a dangerous precedent, raising concerns from smaller countries over the future of the international order.
Fuad Didic, a Bosnian political scientist and former diplomat, said that the U.S. move should not be viewed as an isolated incident but rather as part of a broader U.S. strategic framework.
The recently released U.S. National Security Strategy urged restoring American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, he told Xinhua in an interview, adding the Jan. 3 U.S. military strike against Venezuela marked a concrete step toward realizing the strategy, signalling an emerging "new reality" in international affairs.
According to Didic, the new reality is characterized by major U.S. moves in international affairs that lack consultation with its allies and violate international law or established international norms.
He warned that such U.S. practices could reshape the global political landscape and influence its future policies toward other regions, including the Balkans.
Widespread concerns have been voiced across Latin America, including in Cuba, Colombia and Mexico, he stressed, adding that the U.S.'s unilateral move, taken without adequate consultation with its European allies, has also generated unease among them.
Slobodan Soja, a Bosnian historian and former diplomat, pointed out that the Venezuela episode reflected a familiar pattern of major-power intervention.
He noted in a Xinhua interview that some Western media outlets had avoided using the term "aggression" in the case of Venezuela and largely overlooked its implications for international law.
Soja said that the primary objective of the U.S. move was to reassert control over Venezuela's energy resources, and highlighted that similar U.S. approaches toward countries like Iraq and Libya had led to weakened sovereignty and prolonged regional instability.
The developments regarding Venezuela pointed to a rising trend of unilateralism, and this situation has heightened the deep-seated concerns in smaller countries worldwide about the direction and stability of the international order, Soja said. ■