Breaking the South Slav Dream The Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia

by Hudson, Kate

• ISBN13: 9780745318820
• ISBN10: 0745318827
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-06-20
• Publisher: Pluto Press

Summary

This book provides a revisionist history of the rise and fall of Yugoslavia. Assessing the geo-political and geo-strategic reasons for its creation and dismemberment, it is an important corrective to much contemporary theorising about the destruction of the Yugoslav state. In particular Kate Hudson draws attention to the role of foreign states whose involvement in Yugoslavia did much to destabilise the region, and explains how and why this happened. Tracing the state's origins from 1918 through war and the Tito years, she explains the distortion of the socialist economy resulting from Yugoslavia's unusual position between the two Cold War blocs, and the economic collapse of the 1980s as part of the US's drive for a free market. She also investigates the true causes and effects of the recent wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo and brings the book up-to-date with an analysis of Milosevic's downfall, and events in Macedonia and Montenegro.

Author Biography

Kate Hudson is Principal Lecturer in Russian and East European Politics at South Bank University. She is editor of Contemporary Politics, and author of European Communism since 1989.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(7)
1 The 'first' Yugoslavia: origins and problems	8	(18)
Yugoslavism and the origins of the state	9	(3)
The war and its outcome	12	(3)
Economic challenges in nation-building	15	(3)
Political challenges in nation-building	18	(2)
Peasants and communists	20	(3)
Absolute rule	23	(3)
2 The Second World War	26	(13)
The eve of war	27	(2)
Division and occupation	29	(2)
Resistance	31	(6)
The cost of the war	37	(2)
3 The Tito years	39	(17)
Establishing the new state	40	(2)
The split with the Soviet Union	42	(3)
Self-management	45	(3)
Non-alignment	48	(2)
Nations and constitutions	50	(4)
Reasserting communist authority	54	(2)
4 Economic assault: the 1980's and the US drive for a free market	56	(17)
Economic instability	58	(4)
Political instability	62	(2)
The question of Kosovo	64	(4)
Milosevic	68	(5)
5 Crisis response	73	(16)
Political change in Slovenia	75	(3)
Multi-party elections	78	(4)
Breakdown	82	(4)
Slovenian secession	86	(3)
6 War: the first wave - Croatia	89	(14)
International interests	91	(1)
Conflict with the JNA	92	(6)
Negotiation and recognition	98	(5)
7 War: the second wave - Bosnia	103	(20)
The question of Islam	105	(4)
The build-up to war	109	(3)
The war begins	112	(7)
The final stages	119	(1)
The Dayton Accords	120	(3)
8 War: the third wave - Kosovo	123	(15)
The KLA and the move towards war	124	(3)
Rambouillet and the legality of the attack	127	(4)
The NATO bombardment	131	(4)
Kosovo after the war	135	(3)
9 Bringing down Milosevic and what came after	138	(14)
Politics in Serbia	139	(5)
The presidential election of 2000	144	(5)
Macedonia and Montenegro	149	(3)
10 Victors' justice? The trial of Slobodan Milosevic	152	(19)
The charges	154	(2)
Background	156	(6)
The trial	162	(5)
Racak	167	(2)
Rambouillet	169	(1)
An 'insider' witness	170	(1)
Notes	171	(11)
Index	182