The Yugoslav Drama

Hans B. Neumann teaches history at Scarborough College, University of
Toronto.

As a longtime official in the former Yugoslav government, Mihailo
Crnobrnja is obviously qualified to write about the “Yugoslav
drama.” His scholarly, lucid, and dispassionate analysis is divided
into four sections: the complex history of what became Yugoslavia, with
emphasis on the pre-Tito and Tito years; the critical post-Tito years,
when the major players merged from the shadow of the creator of modern
Yugoslavia; the civil war; and, finally, the situation as it stood in
the fall of 1993.

Crnobrnja assigns blame for the unfolding tragedy not just to the Serbs
but also to the Yugoslav intelligentsia, media, and army, and to
Germany’s grossly overhasty recognition of Croatia and Slovenia.
Sadly, his balanced view will likely fall on deaf ears in the West. In
the current emotionally charged environment, the political solutions to
the “Yugoslav drama” that Crnobrnja offers in his final chapter
stand little chance of being implemented, rational though they may be.