The Balkans After the Cold War - From Tyranny to Tragedy (Electronic book text)

At the end of the Cold War, the Balkan states of South-East-Europe were in crisis. They had emerged from two decades of hardline communism with their economies in disarray and authoritarian leaders poised to whip up nationalist feelings so as to cling to power. The break up of Yugoslavia followed in 1991 along with prolonged instability in Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. The Balkans after the Cold War analyses these turbulent events, which led to violence on a scale not seen in Europe for nearly 50 years. It asks why the Atlantic democracies grouped in NATO and the European Union did not use their strength and credibility to prevent the Yugoslav conflict or build an enduring peace that uprooted the power structures of nationalist forces which had fuelled warfare mainly directed against civilians. Gallagher offers a detailed critique of Western policy towards the region, identifying a failure to create new policy instruments designed to manage the post-1989 crises, and to respond to the difficulties faced by countries that stayed at peace in managing the transition from totalitarian forms of communism to open and representative political systems.; By analysing a wealth of diplomatic, military, economic and political evidence, this hard-hitting book shows how the West's political elite lost its nerve when confronted with the Yugoslav crisis, contributing to prolonged instability in Europe's most volatile region. This volume follows on from the recently published Outcast Europe: The Balkans, 1789-1989 - From the Ottomans to Milosevic, also by Tom Gallagher.