Yugoslavia's bloody collapse: causes, course and consequences

Christopher Bennett argues that Yugoslavia’s disintegration was not, contrary to accepted wisdom, the product of inherent and irrational ethnic animosities and centuries of strife — an interpretation which helps to vindicate the West’s policy of inaction. He suggests that the decisive turning-point came in 1987, when a struggle was waged within the Serbian Communist party between adherents of a Serb nationalist ideology (embodied by Slobodan Milosevic) and those Yugoslavs who clung to the concept of a multinational state. As soon as Milosevic gained the upper hand he ruthlessly purged his rivals and launched a massive campaign of media indoctrination to stir up Serb nationalist sentiment. This new Serb nationalism, which has so revolted the world since 1991, is thus Milosevic’s creation and not the result of historical enmity. The author’s examination of this phenomenon is set within a concise and accessible history of the former Yugoslavia.