Hesitant to Engage: US Intervention in the Balkans from Yugoslav Dissolution to the Kosovo Campaign

Vol.14,No.2–3(2012)

Abstract
This article aims to assess the US interventionist approach in the Balkans in the 1990s. It examines the respective approach as it underwent changes towards a more pragmatic and coherent stance in three phases: the initial reluctance to intervene, the decisive engagement in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), and the closing engagement in the Kosovo campaign. In this respect, the US Balkans policy was chiefly consistent in its values from the start, but suffered from disparities between principles and practice and thus lacked appropriate modes of implementation. This specific lack was gradually reduced and a more consistent and responsive approach adopted.

Keywords:
Dissolution; Yugoslavia; Western Balkans; Intervention; US Foreign Policy; Clinton; Bush Snr.; Bush Jnr.; BiH; Croatia; Serbia
Author biography

Vladimir Đorđević

Contact: Department of International Relations and European Studies, Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University, Joštova 10, 602 00 Brno; e-mail: dordevic@fss.muni.cz.
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