I'm American, but full-blooded Montenegrin by heritage.
The "Montenegrin nationalism" could only be pulled off after 50 years of communistic atheism (where Montenegrins lost their way, spiritually) and by pulling a whole lot of political strings from the outside. It's a political flash in the pan, it's not grassroots. The entire population of Montenegro is only a little over 600,000 -- the population of a medium-sized US metropolitan city. It's not hard to jerk their chain, especially after a bloody and complicated break-up of Yugoslavia where anything resembling a Serb must get on his knees and continually repeat, "Mea Culpa". Djukanovic is a a useful thug, not a leader. Montenegro is a managed province at the moment, not a country.
The Macedonian/Greek issue is a deliberately created political time bomb. Anyone with half a brain knew that an independent Yugoslav Macedonia was going to rub Greece the wrong way--as well it should. The country's entire existence is an irritant to all involved, so that no one will miss it when it's gone -- swallowed up by a Greater Albania. Sad, but it's independence was a suicide mission from the very beginning, and everyone knew it except the Macedonians.
I think that you are looking too hard at the little picture, which is admirable, but it is not the ultimate solution to the problem in this case. There are always local "reasons" which can be exploited by outsiders to cleave these regions apart -- and the Powers who have wanted to manage the region have done a hell of a good job of exploiting those cleavages.
The Balkans has too often been passed around by the major Powers as though they were a box of chocolates. This is nothing new. It's been going on for the last 150 years, which is why most of our ancestors got the hell out of there rather than live their lives at the whim and will of some foreign ruler. But sooner or later, the ruler goes broke and goes home or gets weak and gets thrown out -- and there is peace for a while, until the next outside Power gets too big for his britches and makes its move into the Balkans. Historically, it's ultimately been that Power's Waterloo, which is why I have never wanted the US to get involved there on ANY side. Long run it's always a losing proposition, no matter how well they think that they have it under control.
And yet an independent Montenegro existed separately from Serbia for many years until the creation of Yugoslavia after WWI.
The Macedonian/Greek issue is a deliberately created political time bomb. Anyone with half a brain knew that an independent Yugoslav Macedonia was going to rub Greece the wrong way--as well it should. The country's entire existence is an irritant to all involved, so that no one will miss it when it's gone -- swallowed up by a Greater Albania. Sad, but it's independence was a suicide mission from the very beginning, and everyone knew it except the Macedonians.
So, rather than an independent Macedonia, what should have happened to it? Should it have stayed part of Serbia (where it was before Tito broke it off)? Be absorbed by Greece or Bulgaria?
Do you believe the ancient Macedonians (Philip II, Alexander) were Greeks? That's not a critical question; I don't know what they were myself. I'm just curious as to your opinion.