• Complain

Alastair Finlan - The Collapse of Yugoslavia, 1991–1999

Here you can read online Alastair Finlan - The Collapse of Yugoslavia, 1991–1999 full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2014, publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, genre: History. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

Alastair Finlan The Collapse of Yugoslavia, 1991–1999
  • Book:
    The Collapse of Yugoslavia, 1991–1999
  • Author:
  • Publisher:
    Bloomsbury Publishing
  • Genre:
  • Year:
    2014
  • Rating:
    5 / 5
  • Favourites:
    Add to favourites
  • Your mark:
    • 100
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

The Collapse of Yugoslavia, 1991–1999: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "The Collapse of Yugoslavia, 1991–1999" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

In 1991, an ethnically diverse region that had enjoyed decades of peaceful coexistence descended into bitter hatred and chaos, almost overnight. Communities fractured along lines of ethnic and religious affiliation and the ensuing fighting was deeply personal, resulting in brutality, rape and torture, and ultimately the deaths of thousands of people. This book examines the internal upheavals of the former Yugoslavia and their international implications, including the failure of the Vance-Owen plan; the first use of NATO in a combat role and in peace enforcement; and the war in Kosovo, unsanctioned by the UN but prosecuted by NATO forces to prevent the ethnic cleansing of the region.Reviews from Amazon:Written by an author who at best defaults to a militant worldview, ultimately justifying a slippery slope of unending political interventionism and a police the world foreign policy. Not unlike the persons who influenced america invading Iraq and practicing regime change, ultimately destabilizing the region. Not a fan of said policy.The presentation was skimpy with large format pictures taking up vast areas throughout as if a student was trying to stretch a report to 92-pages. Not really comfortable with an important British officer being referred to repeatedly by his first name. After all, Bob is not Napoleon or Cher. Lastly, it all seemed rather Brit-o-centric rather like the writer was summarizing dispatches from News of the World while embedded at The Frog and Whistle.If you want just the most basic account of the Balkan Wars of the 1990s, this might fit the bill although it tends to be very anglo-centric and militaristic. By basic, I mean it is a short afternoon read (including a break for tea). The complexities of the war are glossed over and replaced with descriptions of British military commanders and political leaders who, while important and somewhat interesting, are not the key players. If this book were in the $5 price range, I might consider adding another star for better value, but at its sale price of $15, it is far overpriced.Responding to another reader here, the maps are okay but very basic; better ones are readily available on-line. But they are the best part of this particular book.Bottom line: if you want to understand this war better--look for other accounts: Misha Glenny or Laura Silber both wrote much more comprehensive and readible accounts that are available at the same price or cheaper--I highly recommend those as alternatives.I am a complete beginner/dummy to the history of the Yugoslav wars (I was a child in the 1990s), and only stumbled on this book following the flurry of articles in the press commemorating the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Bosnian war.While reading the first 25 pages of this little book, I kept asking, Who are the Serbs and the Croats and the Muslims? What are their goals? How are they different from each other? Do they speak different languages? etc. These questions were left unanswered by the book. Or perhaps it was assumed that the reader would already be familiar with the answers---but if so, why would the reader bother reading this introductory text?Example: The author bogs the reader down with details about the exact models and engines used by the Yugoslav Air Force. Yet he fails to fully convey to a complete beginner/dummy like myself, how the JNA (being previously the army for the federation of Yugoslavia) could become completely pro-Serbian.In a small little book like this, Id have expected to very quickly get a big picture (if perhaps a simplistic one) of the what and the why of the conflicts, but after finishing the book I would still not have gotten it, had I not repeatedly gone to supplementary sources of information like Wikipedia (and the rest of the Internet).

Alastair Finlan: author's other books


Who wrote The Collapse of Yugoslavia, 1991–1999? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

The Collapse of Yugoslavia, 1991–1999 — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "The Collapse of Yugoslavia, 1991–1999" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Guide To

The Collapse of Yugoslavia

1991-1999

Alastair Finlan

The Collapse of Yugoslavia 19911999 - image 1

Contents
Introduction

The collapse of Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1999 represents one of the greatest yet least understood tragedies of recent times. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, the rest of Eastern Europe embraced with enthusiasm the opportunity to move forward beyond the ravages of communism. The Balkans, however, seemed to step backwards. The region seemed unable to shake off the history of conflict and violence which had oppressed it for so long it is often forgotten that Yugoslavia endured not only a German occupation but also a bitter civil war during World War Two, in which about one million people died. Perhaps, then, it was unsurprising (yet still shocking) that painful reminders of the brutality of World War Two, like concentration camps, should re-emerge in Yugoslavia some 50 years later. Estimates suggest that nearly a quarter of a million people died in the savage ethnic fighting during the 1990s, and the international community watched in disbelief as genocide found new life in a modern age. Unlike other recent wars, the fighting in Yugoslavia was not dominated by high technology and detachment from the enemy. Instead, people killed those they knew, neighbour versus neighbour, and often with short-range weapons such as rifles, knives, or in some cases, pitchforks. It was a return to a type of warfare that seemed medieval in comparison to state-of-the-art, satellite-guided bombs and cruise missiles that are the hallmarks of modern military operations.

The international effects of the bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia have been substantial, wide-ranging, and are still evident in contemporary global affairs. Millions of refugees fled from the region into other parts of Europe, with profound social and economic consequences for their host countries. The influx of refugees was not only an unwelcome financial burden, but also sparked unrest in countries that were forced to absorb people with a completely different set of norms and values. Multi-national operations involving thousands of stabilisation troops and billions of dollars in expenditure are still ongoing in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia. The crimes committed during the fighting are even now being brought to justice through the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), set up in 1993 at The Hague to address the serious violations of international humanitarian law.

The events in Yugoslavia in the 1990s possess an enigmatic quality. At the heart of the debate is the question of how people who have lived for years in peace can suddenly start killing each other in the most barbaric ways. Surely humanity at the latter end of the twentieth century had evolved beyond such practices, condemned by the international community after World War Two?

The suffering in the Balkans thrust several key international figures into the limelight, whose reputations were largely sullied by either direct involvement in the killings, or their inability to generate a comprehensive solution to the crisis. Overnight, a little-known Serbian leader, Slobodan Milosevic, became a household name across the world. Many historians believe that Milosevic was a central figure in the outbreak of fighting between the different ethnic communities, yet throughout the 1990s the international community was more than willing to negotiate with Milosevic as a legitimate authority rather than as a perpetrator of violence.

Milosevics Bosnian Serb partners, the flamboyant Radovan Karadzic and his ruthless military compatriot General Ratko Mladic, also face indictments for alleged war crimes, but remain at large at the time of writing. Other regional leaders, such as Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia-Hercegovina, became equally well known in the global media, but with less notoriety than their Serbian counterparts. For the wider international community, unlike previous crises such as the Gulf War of 1991, no single international leader (until President Bill Clinton in 1995) took the lead concerning policy towards the former Yugoslavia. However, some political analysts have raised serious questions about the role of the British leader John Major and his Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, in ensuring that the European Community did not become too heavily involved at the outset of the fighting. By contrast, John Majors successor, Tony Blair, played a central part in ensuring swift military intervention in Kosovo in 1999.

The international community sent many high-level mediators to try to resolve the conflict in Yugoslavia, all with distinguished political pedigrees. The first was Lord Carrington, and others included eminent statesmen such as Cyrus Vance, Lord Owen, and Thorvald Stoltenberg. Towards the mid-1990s, the key negotiator was the United States Assistant Secretary of State, Richard Holbrooke, who was instrumental in bringing about the Dayton Agreement of 1995, and played a key role during negotiations over the Kosovo crisis in 1999. Many outstanding soldiers with illustrious careers, such as the Canadian General Lewis MacKenzie, General Philippe Morillon from France, and Britains General Sir Michael Rose, were sent by their respective nations to take charge on the ground, yet all found the political context in the region very challenging. The twisted political web between the various Yugoslavian factions, allied with the reluctance of outside countries to adopt a more robust peacekeeping posture, left soldiers on the ground brutally exposed, physically and mentally, to the horrors of ethnic conflict. Other military leaders fared better due to their willingness to grasp the Balkan nettle, such as the British generals Sir Rupert Smith and Sir Michael Jackson, and General Wesley Clark from the United States of America.

The role of the United Nations during the collapse of Yugoslavia has been heavily criticised, for allowing genocide to flourish under the guns of its soldiers sent to protect the victims. The most searing example of this neglect was the handing over of the town of Srebrenica to Bosnian Serb soldiers led by General Mladic, by a battalion of Dutch peacekeepers in 1995. Estimates suggest that, despite promising not to harm the remaining residents, Mladics men killed around 7000 Muslims in a carefully organised massacre. All three Secretary Generals who held office between 1991 and 1999, Javier Perez de Cuellar, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and Kofi Annan (the head of the UN peacekeeping department during much of this period), have faced intense criticism for their actions or inactions during the bloodletting. Tens of thousands of UN soldiers from all around the world were deployed to the region under the title United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), first to Croatia and then to Bosnia-Hercegovina. By the end of the mid-1990s, the influence of the United Nations began to be supplanted by that of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Although this organisation appeared to lose its basic purpose with the end of the Cold War, and despite having been in existence since 1949, it fired its first shots in anger in 1994 in the former Yugoslavia. NATO would take a key position in bringing a cessation to the violence in the region, first in Bosnia in 1995, and then in Kosovo in 1999.

Chronology
1389Battle of Kosovo Polje. Much of the Yugoslavian region falls under the influence of the Ottoman Empire.
1878Congress of Berlin. Serbia gains independence.
1908Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia and Hercegovina.
1914(June) Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo.
Next page
Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «The Collapse of Yugoslavia, 1991–1999»

Look at similar books to The Collapse of Yugoslavia, 1991–1999. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.


Reviews about «The Collapse of Yugoslavia, 1991–1999»

Discussion, reviews of the book The Collapse of Yugoslavia, 1991–1999 and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.