Understanding Cultural Landmines in the Balkans : How the Land and Its History Have Kept a People at War

Throughout eastern Europe, it was a time of unprecedented social and political upheaval. Old alliances crumbled and new nations emerged so often and so suddenly that for a time it was hard to keep track of the latest developments, and practically a waste of time to redraw old boundary lines given the pervasive fluidity of the political environment. Moreover, many of the events that were reshaping the geo-political face of eastern Europe during the final decade of the Twentieth Century were so far-reaching that only in retrospect could their full implications be grasped. This seemed to be especially true on the Balkan Peninsula. Certainly no other region of Europe was more affected by the watershed events of the 1990's. And although history allowed no Balkan country to remain unaffected by the era's rapidly changing circumstances, the six constituent republics of the sovereign state already known as Yugoslavia were perhaps most acutely impacted. It was in the former Republic of Yugoslavia that the fires of political change burned most brightly.Army Research Inst for the Behavioral and Social Sciences Alexandria VA is the author of 'Understanding Cultural Landmines in the Balkans : How the Land and Its History Have Kept a People at War', published 2001 under ISBN 9781423523048 and ISBN 1423523040.