[rgrieselhuber]

I always wonder why balkanization is described as "desperate" or some other extremely bad thing.

[BbzzbB]

Because breaking up countries, let alone over fuzzy ethnic lines, is seldom a peaceful process that leads to prosperous smaller countries (over one's lifetime anyway). A most common outcome seems to be violence and war short-mid term followed by poverty and corruption long term.

[ebiester]

What percentage of these country breakups end up in some sort of destabilizing violence and lowered standards of living for a generation?

[anigbrowl]

The war in former Yugoslavia was pretty horrible and they're by no means over it.

[rgrieselhuber]

But how much of that was caused by the invention of "Yugoslavia" in the first place?