Abstrakt
The demise of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was not an isolated event but rather part of larger disintegration processes that led to the collapse of multinational states in the early 1990s. Similar to the developments that were taking place in the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia experienced severe socio-economic problems, coupled with loosening of the grip of the Communist ideology and its repressive apparatus over the society.
This eventually paved the way for growing nationalism and, in some instances, triggered bloodshed on the back of ethnic conflicts. This article analyzes the factors that shaped different paths of development embarked on by Serbia's two autonomous regions, Kosovo and Voivodina, during and in the aftermath of the fall of Yugoslavia.
Employing the analytical framework developed originally by Svante Cornell to explore the ethnic conflicts in the Caucasus, the author identifies main factors that helped engender ethnic violence in Kosovo.