Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T04:07:12.307Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - The War of Yugoslav Succession

from Part Two - Issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2019

Sabrina P. Ramet
Affiliation:
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
Christine M. Hassenstab
Affiliation:
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
Get access

Summary

The War of Yugoslav Succession (1991–1995) is Europe’s bloodiest war since World War Two. It represented the violent culmination of the political conflict within Yugoslavia of the late 1980s and early 1990s occasioned by the rise of nationalism, particularly within Yugoslavia’s Socialist Republic of Serbia; the weakening of the Yugoslav Communist regime; the seizure of power by Slobodan Miloševic in the Socialist Republic of Serbia in 1987; and his subsequent attempt to overturn the Yugoslav constitutional order. The “War of Yugoslav Succession” properly refers to the armed conflict of 1991–1995 in Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, involving all the Yugoslav republics except Macedonia. By far the bloodiest and most protracted phase of the conflict occurred in nationally heterogeneous Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992–1995. Although the war was primarily fought between Yugoslav National Army and Serb forces on the one hand and Croatian and Bosnian forces on the other, a bitter conflict was also fought between Croat and Bosnian (predominantly Muslim) forces in Herzegovina and Central Bosnia in 1992–1994. The War of Yugoslav Succession is the most significant armed conflict to have taken place in Europe since 1945, one that influenced not only the entire course of regional politics and economic development, but also the relations of the major powers (the United States, Russia, and the states of the European Union); global perceptions of the meaning of national conflict, war crimes and genocide; and the evolution of international justice. It is a pivotal episode in the history of post-Cold War Central and Southeastern Europe. Of course, nowhere was its impact so great as it was upon the Yugoslav successor states themselves.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×