International Relations the Yugoslavian Civil

International Relations

The Yugoslavian Civil Wars: Implications for Future Conflict

Study of the Individual, Domestic, and Systemic Causes of the War

Although in the earliest civilizations scholars and learned men were expected to advise the king and military leaders on matters of state, international relations as field concerned with the impartial observation of the interactions and causes of interactions between states is a relatively new discipline. Preceded by the study of foreign relations, in which a student studies the impact of states on the international system on one particular state in order to make policy recommendations, the study of international relations considers more liberally the international system, made up of states, NGOs, and IGOS, when contemplating the cause of international phenomena -- like war. Indeed, conflict theory has risen to become one of the most important issues of international relations. Although the first writings on the subject could be dated back to St. Augustine and his Just War Theory, Waltzer, Anastasiou, and others have recently pioneered a variety of studies considering the causes of war and peace in light of the accepted levels of international relations -- individual, domestic, and systemic or global.

In order to analyze the internal conflict that took place in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, applying these levels make an effective case study. By considering them, one can quickly conclude that the cause of the war cannot be attributed to a single factor. Instead, a combination of factors on all three levels lead to the war that lead to the characterization of the Balkans as volatile and unstable. Although no single cause of the war can be assumed, one can determine that domestic factors, specifically ethnic conflict, contributed most dramatically to the conflict. By considering causes of the war on all three levels of international relations, however, one can determine that the Yugoslav Civil War can be studied as a war that has implications for the future of conflict in the international realm.

Brief Summary of Current Research

The Yugoslav Civil War can be described as one of the most interesting intrastate conflicts in that it combines both intrastate and interstate struggles. Caused by the breakdown of two mega states or conglomerate federations, first the Soviet Union and then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the causes of the Yugoslav Civil Wars can perhaps best be characterized by Chinua Achebe's observation that Things Fall Apart. According to Global Security, the wars, which have gone by a variety of names since their birth, came to "typify post-Cold War ethnic conflict," suggesting that the causes of the wars are extremely important in the future views on the subject. In fact, the immediate implications of the war, including NATO's involvement that frustrated the Russian and Chinese powers (Mandelbaum), received massive feedback from states across the globe. Similarly, the ethnic conflict and nationalism that caused the war have been studied in terms of the great impact of wars of their kind throughout regions during the 20th century (Anastasiou). One far reaching result of this ethnic conflict was its implications for United Nations and International Criminal Court, which named many of the ethnic killings genocide, preparing the way for a series of genocidal civil wars that would take place throughout the 20th and 21st century, primarily in Africa. According to research and scholarship, therefore, the Yugoslav Civil Wars have not only contributed a great deal to the field of international relations, but they have also greatly impacted history. By discussing the causes of the wars on the individual, domestic, and systemic levels, students of international relations and historians alike can understand the impact of the wars on the global system.

II. Individual Causes

Although one might be tempted to consider the nationalism and ethnic cleansing that characterized the wars on the individual level of causes, these factors will be treated with much greater detail when discussing the domestic causes of the war. Although they were by no means the largest cause of the war, individuals certainly had a hand in shaping the conflict. The individuals involved, however, were not involved in the traditional sense of a charismatic individual who starts a war and gains followers based on his or her personality, like Adolf Hitler's conquest and leadership during WWII. Neither are the cases of the Yugoslav Civil Wars cases in which charismatic leaders started wars in order to divert attention away from themselves or their poor handling of a domestic situation, as is most commonly known as diversionary war theory and has been levied on such rulers as U.S. President Bill Clinton, who is rumored to have become involved in the gulf because of his desire to draw attention away from his romance with Monica Lewinsky.

In the case of the Yugoslav Civil Wars, however, the individuals primarily responsible for the individual causes of the war were those whose ideas had infiltrated the population. Most notoriously, this was Vladimir Lenin, whom many of the warring Yugoslav people admired. Nationalists called themselves Leninists, and under the guidance of the deceased charismatic thinker's theories, proclaimed the "right of nations to self-determination and the right of people to self-defense" ("Nationalism and Counterrevolution"). By playing on both the individual level, by calling individuals to arms, and the domestic level, by calling states to national pride, the deceased Lenin was a pivotal, influential individual during the war.

Similarly, Lenin was a driving force behind the economic strife that echoed the ethnic strife of the civil wars. In addition to the struggles between Serbs ad Croats, Bosniaks, and Albanians, and Bosniaks and Croats, a struggle between Capitalists and Communists was also raging. Other influential individuals, Yugoslavia's bureaucrats, attempted to exploit the working class in order to further their national agendas. This fueled retaliation for Leninist communists who sought a more equal playing field for all ("Nationalism and Counterrevolution").

Although Lenin was an influential individual in causing the war from beyond the grave, he was not the only one. In fact, Joseph Stalin's tyrannical and terrifying rule also had a hand in causing the war. According to "Nationalism and Counterrevoltuon," the hostilities that had long been submerged by Stalin's rule and other Communist conflict would come to a head, based in the nationalism and economic conflict inspired by Lenin.

Although no charismatic individual lead the states of the former Yugoslavia to war, individual causes of the war, in terms of the ideas of Lenin and Stalin and the individuals of the upper-class, had a hand in leading to outbreak of Balkan Civil War in the 1990s.

Domestic Causes of the War

Although individuals may have heightened the domestic conflicts that were already apparent in the region, one of the domestic causes of the war -- nationalism -- reigns supreme. For centuries, ethnic conflict has been at the center of wars throughout the international system (Anastasiou). Second, perhaps, only to the Middle East, the Balkans is and was a prime area for the study of ethnic tension. In fact, it was an ethnic conflict in the Balkans -- a Serbian nationalist's assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand -- that contributed to the First World War. But the legacy of World War One on the area did not stop there. Instead, alliances between Axis and Allied powers in the region added flame to the ethnic fire in the region. Because the Serbs had aided the victorious Allies in WWI, the ethnic group considered themselves superior forces in the area. In opposition to their vision of superiority, the Croats, fueled and supported by their Axis alliance, considered themselves superior and instituted a policy of genocide on the Serbs. These Croats, covering a large part of Bosnia Herzegovina, were at one end of a major ethnic fire that was bound to burn. Although the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was an attempt to unite these ethnic groups, the attempt was precarious at best, and the system was doomed for failure.

Thus, the war had its roots in domestic causes, the ethnic conflict that had infiltrated the area and come to a head during WWII. Although economics and charismatic individuals are excellent foddering for the fire, the individual causes of the Yugoslav Civil war would not have been enough to start the conflict without the ethnic conflict that was already in place. In fact, it was this ethnic conflict that lead to the war's classification as one of the most brutal and violent in the area. Bitter Ethnic conflicts allowed several armies to be fighting one another at the same time. In fact, the civil wars were a series of ethnic wars for independence and nationalism that flourished in the same area of the former Yugoslavia throughout the decade. Although the Yugoslav People's Army was created as a unified army in order to contain the ethnic strife, the army was populated almost completely by Serbs if only by default, since this was the largest ethnic group represented in the area. For instance, the army intervened in Croatia during one of the civil wars in which the Serbs seceded from the Croatian state because of ethnic problems between the two nationalities. Because of the army's status as Serbs, however, it aided only the rebels, leaving the Croats to fend for themselves.

But the conflict did not stay within the boarders of Croatia. Instead, it pushed past the boundaries of Bosnia Herzegovina and led to one of the most bitter and bloodiest battles of the war, which included the Serbs and Yugoslavian People's Army fighting against the Croats and Muslims of Bosnia. The violence of the conflict would allow Bosnia to take focus as one of the most disastrous sites of the war. The conflict not only caused massive amounts of bloodshed, but also fear that created an international attempt to aid victims and would-be victims on both sides ("Along Ethnic Fault Lines").

The extent of the ethnic conflicts, and the degree to which the violence flourished because of them, has been proved, primarily through the Serbian-Croatian conflict, the preferences of the Yugoslavian People's Army, and the violence and blood in Bosnia Herzegovina. Because some scholars suggest that the sate is disappearing from its modern position as sovereign, others believe ethnic conflict will become the primary outlet for conflict in the future (Salmon 13). The examples contained in the domestic ethnic origins of this war give credence to this theory. Thus, not only were domestic factors the most important, most developed, and most violent reasons for conflict in the Yugoslavian Civil Wars, but also are the sources of conflict that hold the most implications for the future of conflict and war.

III. Systemic Causes