Dismembering the State : The Death of Yugoslavia and Why It Matters

This volume challenges assumptions about the disintegration of Yugoslavia. Using an "ecological" or holistic perspective, the book addresses questions such as the role of military intervention as coercive diplomacy and the influence of post-Cold War European democratic and economic reform.

P. H. Liotta''s previous book, The Wreckage Reconsidered, was acclaimed as a tour de force of scholarship. In Dismembering the State, Liotta continues to challenge numerous assumptions about the disintegration of Yugoslavia. His research uses an "ecological," or holistic, perspective to address interwoven questions such as the role of military intervention as coercive diplomacy, the use of chaos as a strategy against America''s and NATO''s technological military predominance, and the influence of post-Cold War European democratic and economic reforms. This book considers how a host of factors, from 1991 to 1999, combined to contribute significantly to both the disintegration of the nation-state and to the continued instability of the present states of the former Yugoslavia. Of interest to both scholars and sophisticated lay readers, Liotta has fashioned a scholarly assessment of this timely and complex topic that promises to be as innovative as it is erudite.