The Balkans are in the news again. Speaking at a conference in Darmstadt yesterday, Angela Merkel defended her policy concerning migrants. She said that closing Germany’s border to Austria could result in military conflict in the Balkans. Many fault lines between the states on the fraught peninsula are there since the breakup of Yugoslavia. She added that it was Germany’s responsibility to find a resolution to the problem by encouraging solidarity rather than division. Merkel’s words are good to remember. In the long run, the migrant crisis cannot but lead to ever-deeper division between the Balkan states. Migrants from Asia and Africa will keep streaming toward the rich countries in northwestern Europe, but the poor countries on the southeastern margins of the subcontinent will be exposed to growing strains of migration. Sooner or later, all of these countries will close their borders to their neighbors, but some of these borders will be difficult to protect from the migrant flows. Add smuggling to the brew, and the future is outright frightening. As for Germany, it will eventually close all of its borders, as well. And that will be one more nail in the coffin of the European Union.