The task of building a viable and unified state has been complicated not only by Yugoslavia's diverse cultural composition, but also by the pressures which the evolution of international society have placed on the modern state. In this truly international history of Yugoslavia, Ann Lane exposes fully the role played by other nations in the rise and fall of the nation. Lane's argument is that the world's most powerful countries exacerbated the tensions in what is now the former Yugoslavia, manipulating domestic difficulties for the purpose of power politics.