In this module we will analyse the decade of conflict that accompanied the break-up of socialist Yugoslavia during 1991-2001. We will look at the period beginning with Tito's death in 1980 until the outbreak of war in 1991. Of great importance here is the Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević and his utilization of Serbian grievances in Kosovo, as well as the role played by Serbian intellectuals in nurturing and inflaming those grievances. We will also explore the violent demise of the Yugoslavia in the Slovenian, Croatian, Bosnian wars of the 1990s. Why, in the case of the Bosnian and Croatian wars were these wars so protracted and violent, why not in Slovenia? Due consideration will be played to social, cultural, and economic factors in the states of ex-Yugoslavia during the conflict. How did societies cope (or not) with these dramatic changes, and what are the longer-term implications of these conflicts on the region and on Europe in general?
- Učitel: John Paul Newman