Communication among the Balkan nations, and between the Balkan nations and the rest of the world, is as smooth during this era as it has ever been.

Seven of the former Warsaw Pact nations join NATO, and some of the Balkan nations apply to join the European Union.

Greece and Turkey help each other enormously by coming to one another’s aid in the face of devastating earthquakes, though tensions remain.

The Balkan nations are, for for the most part, recovering from the disastrous twentieth century, though there is war: a two-year conflict in Serbia’s Kosovo region and a brief one in the Transnistria region of Moldova.

Even poor countries like Albania and Moldova prosper in the new information economy.

At the end of this era, there are eleven independent Balkan states—Greece, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Romania, Moldova, and Bulgaria.