This study examines conflict and conflict resolution in medieval Eastern Europe. The author argues that the posturing, limited violence, and shifting alliances within kinship networks often determined the outcome of conflicts in the region, without extensive bloodshed or large-scale warfare.

This volume offers new perspectives on the history of the Byzantine Balkans and beyond--regions that lived for centuries under the long shadow of Constantinople--as well as unique insights into the complex world of late medieval and early modern southeastern Europe during a period of catastrophe.