Explain the Effect of War on Yugoslavia in the Period Since the 1990s

Yugoslavia was plunged in deep waters during the 1990s. What was a country that had enjoyed a period of security, inter-ethnic peace, and relative prosperity was always an artificially-constituted state, held together over the years by the power of the communist Marshal Tito's regime. After his death in 1980, Yugoslavia began to gradually disintegrate in 1990s due to ethnic tensions, economic issues, beginning of political disputes, religious tensions and nationalism that had became dominant over communism. As soon as Yugoslavia's true state emerged, the pressure of communist rule was removed.

This called to the disintegration of Yugoslavia federation into 6 republics after relations among the republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had started deteriorating. Those include Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro. Yet only Serbia and Montenegro wanted to remain as part of Yugoslavia. The rest wanted independence and control of their nations while Serbia wanted to reinforce federal authority and thought independence was unacceptable. As an agreement between leaders on how to deal with the rotating presidency failed, civil wars erupted and with it, it brought deadly consequences.

Fight for independence and nationalism occurred in the Ten Days War, War in Croatia, Bosnian and Kosovo War between the republics. The wars were inevitable and because of the absence of a strong central authority after Tito's death, the disintegration became unavoidable. The intense and resurgent nationalism was not without challenges. As a result, the civil wars brought severe impacts, politically, economically and socially.

Politically, after Tito's death, Communist leadership was subject to question, opening the way for alternative political forms. After the disintegration of Yugoslavia, many communist politicians rebounded themselves into nationalists to promote their own nationalism believing that it would be better to rule a nation of their own. Each of the 6 republics was perceived as a threat to another national group and has felt threatened themselves. Subsequently with the removal of communism, free elections were held by every republic. Non-Communist parties won a majority of seats in the parliaments of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Slovenia. In Serbia and Montenegro, the Communist parties, now well-known as Socialist parties, won majorities. Best known winners were; Franjo Tudjman who was elected by Croatia was a former communist and nationalist, who rose to power and created a war-like atmosphere. Slobodan Milosevic, elected in Serbia as the president of Yugoslavia, was a Serbian Nationalist who attempted to carry on Tito's visions and sought to save party control. So when Slovenia and Croatia declared independence from Socialist Yugoslavia in 1991, Serbia was unwilling to accept. Because this ceased the hope of Serbia in making a centralised Yugoslavia, Serbian nationalists moved to focus on creating a 'Greater Serbia'. The result was war on Croatia. Slobodan Milosevic deployed Serbian Yugoslav army and parliamentary forces to challenge the secession of Croatia and Slovenia in 1991; however, Slovenian War only lasted 10 days, known as 'The Ten Days War', while Croatian war lasted until 1992. Slobodan Milosevic also attacked Bosnia-Herzegovina after they also announced independence in 1992.

As nationalists politicians became the central government in their own nation, some have decided to introduce a campaign of 'ethnic cleansing' aimed at creating consistent nation. Civilians who didn't not 'belong' to the nation they are living in based on their nationality and religious beliefs were either driven away or killed in genocide. The worst affected by the ethnic cleansing were the civilians in Bosnia because Bosnia held the largest mixed population. This campaign led to a legacy of hatred and mistrust. The biggest well-known act of ethnic cleansing took place in Vukovar located in eastern of Croatia where more than 2,000 people have been murdered by the Serbian military with the aid of Yugoslav People Army during Croatia's fight for Independence in 1991. Many accuse the leader of Croatia, Franjo Tudjman of deliberately sacrificing Vukovar to gain sympathy and help from foreign countries and to draw a portrayal of Serbians as the wrongdoers.

Kosovo War was also another issue the Serbians were accused of wrongdoing. Kosovo was known as the heart of Serbia but overtime Kosovo became home to several nationalities and the Serbian were in minority of that population so when Kosovo established the Kosovo Liberation Army who sought independence, Slobodan Milosevic ordered the Serbian Military to attack Kosovo, overturn the decision and try to claim back Kosovo as part of Serbia.

As the issues were no near to being resolved, external forces got involved, such as America, who tried to reinforce peacekeeping which deemed to fail continually. Peacekeepers such as the United Nations have proved to be incompetent due to the Srebrenica Massacre's genocide of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims by Serbian Military. Srebrenica was said to be a 'safe area' for refugees and on watch by United Nations. However, as result of Massacre, United Nations was deemed as untrustworthy.

Another peacekeeping organisation that got involved is the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, otherwise known as NATO. NATO's pressure to stop the civil wars led to the 'Dayton Agreement'. An agreement to end the civil wars and to ensure 'peace'. However, there are other reasons for NATO forces in Yugoslavia, it was to degrade and destroy Yugoslavian air defenses and military and pressure Slobodan Milosevic to step down.

NATO launched air strikes in 1999 in the republics of former Yugoslavia. NATO forces were successful in pressuring Slobodan Milosevic to step down and in degrading the Yugoslavian air defences and military, but NATO also ignited a controversial issue. During their 'peacekeeping', they damaged the country's infrastructure. They killed innocent civilians and refugees and gradually established Kosovo as their military base. The media saw that NATO attacked for their own advantages. They attacked to clam the Western people fear of another war-breakdown and for their own economical boost.

As the political issues were ongoing in Yugoslavia in 1990s, civil wars and the disintegration had led to the economic problems in Yugoslavia. NATO's damage of infrastructure led to the immediate fall of the economy. What NATO destroyed, it was what Yugoslavia depended its economy on.

Economically, after the death of Marshal Tito in 1980, 'self-managing'