Twenty years after Yugoslavia's bloody breakup, the patchwork of nations known as the Western Balkans faces rampant organized crime and corruption, chronically high unemployment and simmering ethnic tension. The region lags far behind its Eastern European neighbors -- economically and democratically -- and poses a potential trouble spot for the rest of Europe. Still, the picture isn't all bleak. Croatia is about to join the European Union, and several other nations have membership applications pending. By contrast, Bosnia and Kosovo, where savage sectarian fighting occurred in the 1990s -- including mass killings of civilians -- are struggling to establish themselves as functional, independent states. Meanwhile, Serbia, after years of steady progress, recently elected an ultra-nationalist president, triggering renewed concerns over its future role in the region.

Brian Beary -- a freelance journalist based in Washington, D.C. -- specializes in EU-U.S. affairs and is the U.S. correspondent for Europolitics, the EU affairs daily newspaper. Originally from Dublin, Ireland, he worked in the European Parliament for Irish MEP Pat 'The Cope' Gallagher in 2000 and at the EU Commission's "Eurobarometer" unit on public opinion analysis. A fluent French speaker, he appears regularly as a guest international relations expert on various television and radio program. Apart from his work for Congressional Quarterly, Beary also writes for the European Parliament Magazine and the Irish Examiner daily newspaper.