The Wars in Former Yugoslavia in the 1990s

Mary Kaldor’s view of the wars in Yugoslavia in the 1990s was in many ways refreshing. She rightly saw them as a contemporary phenomenon rather than, as many did at the time, a throwback to the Balkan past. ¹ She ranked the wars in Former Yugoslavia together with other phenomena in post-communist Eastern Europe and wars taking place in Africa. According to her, these new wars involved:

a blurring of distinctions between war (usually defined as violence between states or organized political groups for political motives), organized crime (violence undertaken by privately organized groups for private purposes, usually financial gain) and large-scale violations of human rights (violence undertaken by states or politically organized groups against individuals). ²