Abstract

After the end of the Cold War, a unipolar system, based on the US military power, economic and cultural hegemony in different parts of the world, has been established in world politics. The Balkan crises in the 1990s revealed the methods and purposes of the great powers in this region. The Balkans has been destabilized since the end of the Cold War, disintegration of the USSR and collapse of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Under I. Broz Tito, interethnic and interfaith conflicts that had already existed in Yugoslavia were frozen, and in the 1990s, under S. Milošević, their outburst led to the disintegration of the country and civil war. This opened the way for the US influence here. In the beginning, however, the US, which had the opportunity to employ all its military power to prevent the conflict in Bosnia, took the position of an observer. In December 1992, the US troops first appeared in the territory of the former Yugoslavia as part of a United Nations peacekeeping team in Macedonia, directly bordering Kosovo. The US increasing presence and activity in the region was not accompanied with further escalation of conflicts, and in 1995, the Dayton Agreements were concluded with the US effective participation. The US actions have become much tougher and more offensive after the onset of the Kosovo crisis. The US-led NATO coalition in Kosovo ignored international law and its military operation demonstrated the tightening of the US policy. This study examines the US Balkan policies after the end of the Cold War, during the crises in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. It also attempts at a comparative analysis of the factors that influenced Washington's activities in the context of these crises.