The breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the EU

Abstract

The dissolution of Yugoslavia was a major political event for Europe. It led to the disintegration of the Federal State consisting of six Republics and two autonomous Provinces and produced a violent conflict as the former-Yugoslavian states turned on each other. The ensuing conflict ended up being the largest since the Second World War and resulted in the displacement of millions and thousands more to be injured, raped, cleansed, or executed. The Yugoslavia which Tito had previously built into a glorious non-aligned Federal State, was now descending into conflict as Republics seceded one after the other. The war grew so brutal, that it led to the intervention of the European Community and the United Nations, which obtained temporary peace for Yugoslavia in 1995, after years of failed negotiations and shortcomings from the intervening forces. The aim of this dissertation is to evaluate the EU role in the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the subsequent war in Bosnia. This will be done to evaluate the reasons behind the conflict and highlight the role which the EU had in establishing pace in Bosnia Herzegovina This dissertation will outline how the historically embedded ethnic conflicts influenced the discord and eventual conflict to break out in Yugoslavia. The socio cultural issues played a part in corrupting integration among the Yugoslav ethnicities and were used by the national leaders in the 1990s to fuel their narrative of fear mongering. However, the analysis will prove that this issue was only the tip of the iceberg when discussing the causes for the outbreak of war. Therefore, socio-cultural tensions cannot be wholly blamed for the outbreak of war. Secondly, the dissertation highlights how the European Community failed to coerce peace in the former-Yugoslav States and deem this event as a failure for the Community. The Dayton Agreement which brought peace to the Balkan region in 1995 was orchestrated by a US-led initiative, with minimal participation from the EC. Therefore, the Community’s role in establishing peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina is minimal at best, and their shortcomings would continue to persevere in upcoming peacekeeping missions in the Balkans, such as that in Kosovo.