ABSTRACT

The breakup of socialist Yugoslavia is associated with 25 June 1991, the day on which the republics of Slovenia and Croatia declared their disassociation from the moribund Yugoslav state, but the process of the unravelling of the Socialist Federated Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) began earlier, arguably with Slobodan Milosevic's seizure of power in Serbia in 1987 or with the drafting of the famous memorandum by the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Art in 1986 or earlier with the province-wide riots in Kosovo in spring 1981, or still earlier with the death of Tito in May 1980, and some scholars may wish to trace the process back even further in time, depending on the particular emphasis being placed on the question. Susan Woodward blamed Germany for this in her 1995 book, Balkan Tragedy asserting that German assertiveness had been on the rise since July, and claiming that Germany was 'pursuing an expansionary strategy' in Southeastern Europe.