Kosovo Intervention

The dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s produced five new states: (1) Slovenia, (2) Croatia, (3) Bosnia and Herzegovina, (4) Macedonia, and (5) the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia—made up of Serbia and Montenegro. Interethnic tensions in Croatia and Bosnia led these countries to civil war. As the European Community and the United Nations searched for ways to settle these wars, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia provided military and economic support to Serb militias. This not only escalated the fighting but also created an environment where combatants, from all sides, executed military strategies that targeted civilian populations and caused severe humanitarian crises. The goal of these wars was to “cleanse” towns and neighborhoods of different ethnic groups to create ethnically homogeneous areas.

During the early 1990s, ...