ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the potential contribution to the study of Yugoslavia's breakup of recent theoretical advances in comparative politics. It discusses differences between the most sophisticated scholarly research on the breakup of Yugoslavia published in the 1990s and that carried out since. The chapter outlines the limitations of both strands of scholarly work and indicates alternative avenues. The work of both generations of scholars built upon a strong foundation set by Yugoslavia's scholars, who unfortunately did not write much about the breakup of their country but provided essential empirical material and interpretations about various aspects of the social, cultural, economic and political life of socialist Yugoslavia and its aftermath without which one could hardly understand the country's collapse. The greater theoretical focus and insights from the literatures on political regimes and regime change, nationalist mobilization, national and ethnic conflict regulation, civil wars and other relevant perspectives may suggest important ways to improve empirical research in our field.
