Yugoslavia : a case study in conflict and disintegration

Date
1994
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Karaosmanoğlu, Ali
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Bilkent University
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English
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Abstract

Following the collapse of communism and the alleged end of the Cold War, the Balkans came into the spotlight of events in Europe. By the spring of 1992 Yugoslavia disintegrated. The war between Serbia and the breakaway republics which began in the immediate aftermath of the Slovene and Croatian declarations of independence on 25 June 1991 had already obliterated any possibility of the continued existence of Yugoslavia as a federal entity. At the same time, it presented the international community with a problématique involving complex issues of ethnicity, sovereignty, self-determination, redrawing of borders and diplomatic recognition. The conflict in Yugoslavia threatened wider regional instability at a time when Europe was busy adjusting itself to the changes brought about by the end of the Cold War. With the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet withdrawal from Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia became essentially divorced from great power rivalry. Subsequent developments confirmed earlier fears that Yugoslavia might become the first significant test in post-Cold War Europe for the creation and maintenance of regional stability. The war in Yugoslavia has raised two outstanding issues. The first relates to the question of how to prevent emerging conflicts and defuse existing ones in a continent devoid of the East-West confrontation, yet destabilized by the process. The second issue is the establishment of precedents and policies to prevent conflicts that could arise elsewhere. In that regard, the right to secede or the unilateral act of secession is highly important. There is considerable potential for a conflict similar to the Yugoslav case to erupt elsewhere, including Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The Yugoslav crisis thus presented the international community with the wider problem of pinpointing and avoiding a situation in which the satisfaction of legitimate national aspirations might encourage destabilization. With the Yugoslav crisis, the concept of Balkanization has again come into fore. It is also the first war on the continent since World War II. This study aims to trace the reasons for the Yugoslav disintegration and to single out its salient characteristics. It is neither a comprehensive examination of its political history nor is it intended to keep a record of actual events since the war broke out. It is an aim of this study to use the Yugoslav crisis as a case study in conflict and disintegration as well as secessionism. The first chapter will deal with the theoretical framework concerning conflict and disintegration. The second chapter will examine the historical aspects of the conflict and focus on the factors leading into conflict and disintegration such as Serbian nationalism and its proponent Slobodan Milosevic, cultural ethnicity, economic discrepancies, changing international climate and third party involvement. Finally, there will be a conclusion and conjecture of possible consequences that might flow from present circumstances. The appendix will present the distinctive economic, social, and political characteristics of the former republics and autonomous regions which have facilitated conflict and disintegration.

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