That approach had been ridiculed as wishy-washy and unbecoming to the globe's sole superpower, and critics said Mr. Clinton would be sacrificing American sovereignty to the bureaucrats and blue-helmeted peacekeepers of the United Nations.

He did not subscribe to the peace at all costs view and commented in February 1991 that I would sacrifice peace for a sovereign Bosnia-Herzegovina ... but for that peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina I would not sacrifice sovereignty.

Mr. Milosevic is said by these officials to resent the pressure of the West to sacrifice Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo, which was the heart of the Serbs' medieval empire and is the cradle of Serbian nationalism, and to fear that he could be arrested on a secret indictment for war-crimes charges if he leaves Belgrade.

We did not at the time think that we were sacrificing sovereignty to join that system.

Those nations would have to sacrifice sovereignty over areas of monetary management that were once considered purely national.

"I would sacrifice peace in order to win sovereignty for Bosnia," he said early in his presidency, "but for that peace in Bosnia, I would not sacrifice sovereignty."

It's always easier to sell items identified with defending the ramparts of freedom than to sell those perceived as sacrificing American money or sovereignty.

Even in the new, post-cold-war order, many Americans resist even the appearance of sacrificing sovereignty to an international authority, and tend to support international human rights efforts only as long as they do not obligate us to alter our own practices.

But Government critics hammered at the point, saying it proved that Mr. Salinas was willing to sacrifice Mexican principles and sovereignty by caving in to the United States days after Trade Minister Jaime Serra Puche had insisted that sanctions were out of the question.

Just like the former alliance with Germany, this move partially sacrificed Ukrainian sovereignty: Petliura recognised the Polish annexation of Galicia and agreed to Ukraine's role in Piłsudski's dream of a Polish-centered hegemony in Eastern Europe.