Whitehall Papers no. 68
Preventing War in Macedonia: Pre-Emptive Diplomacy for the 21st Century

The Holy Grail of foreign policy is successful pre-emptive action - solving the problem before it gets out of hand, so avoiding the consequent chaos and casualties, and all too often long-term and costly deployments of troops.

Occasionally, we do appear to get it right - but then because the problem does not become a war, it is often largely overlooked: the media do not cover non-events. They do not report what has not happened. In hindsight, the solutions and avoidance of war can also look inevitable, but I can only say it does not usually look like that at the time.

The Macedonian crisis of 2001 is just such an example, but with an extra reason for fading into the background: it was on the brink of success in September 2001, and we all know what happened on 11 September. Be that as it may, it was a success.

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