The Role of Great Powers in “Small” Wars: the Case of the Balkan Wars

This article examines the role great powers have in the process of conflict management in armed conflicts and more specifically in the Yugoslavia war (1991-2001). Collapse of Yugoslavia consisted of a series of conflicts which were separated but correlated wars fought for independence or ethnick reasons, or wars of insurgencies. Due to the violent nature of the war and many crimes against human rights were committed, the international community was forced to interfere in order to stop the violence and assure a peaceful conclusion. Powerful states have acted through international organisations in the process of regulating the conflict and more specifically through the UN, NATO and EU. Analyzing the role of those 3 players and in which way and to what extent they influence the resolution of the conflict will be the primary objective of this paper. This paper will focus on assessing the importance of each actor by comparing them with each other in chronological way by using comparative historical analysis.