[JumpCrisscross]

> Even Israel & Spain have fenced borders

Balkanisation refers to fences within one’s borders. It’s fragmentation that leads to less wealth, less security and eventually a loss of sovereignty to a powerful neighbor who notices.

[ProllyInfamous]

I understand and encourage the "breaking up" aspect. Smaller, more home-rule societies.

Looking at it from the Slovene POV (which ultimately benefited from the dissolution of Yogoslavia, occurring within my/most lifetime), local industries/GDP benefitted greatly.

[vladms]

Slovenia joined EU rather fast (2003), so that might also have contributed to the prosperity. Joining EU is not exactly "breaking up", is more like "joining".

Currently, the rest of ex-Yugoslavia countries don't seem to do as well as Slovenia, and the main difference is date of joining the EU...

[ProllyInfamous]

Slovenia has been doing way better than the rest of Yogoslavia for longer than it's been a country... it's one of the reasons they lead initial Days War. IIRC their GDP (regionally) was 6x the Yogoslavian average in 1990~