An examination of the trajectory of Serbia's dissidence, from its origins in the 1950s to its consolidation in the early 1980s around the defence of civil and human rights. Yugoslavia's breakup in 1991 and the wars that followed in its wake have been widely blamed on Serbian nationalism. Most analyses, however, have not examined this nationalism in the years before Slobodan Milosevic's rise to power, when its principal articulators were opposition intellectuals. Jasna Dragovic-Soso asks why this strong and apparently democratic opposition movement subsequently turned towards an extreme form...

This multidisciplinary approach explores the historical antecedents and the dynamic process of Yugoslavia's violent dissolution. The volume, a compilation by distinguished scholars, examines issues broadening the understanding of the Yugoslav case, and also sheds light on how to deal with future episodes of state fragility and failure. Moreover, fifteen years after the Yugoslav crisis, the volume fills in the "blank spots" in the historical record.