The Premiere of the Post-Cold War Crisis in Balkans: CIA Documents on the Disintegration of Former Yugoslavia (1989-1992)

As the Cold War came to an end, many revisionist powers predicted the disintegration of Yugoslavia, an uneasy alliance of seven nations that had been held together only by Josip Broz Tito’s iron fist. Chief amongst the interested parties was the United States, hegemon of the new unipolar world order. For years, American intelligence agencies warned of the dangers threatening the Bosnian Muslims, a secessionist ethno-religious minority in the centre of the former Yugoslavian borders; and yet, the United States did not act to protect the Bosnian Muslims. Tensions in the region boiled over into civil war, and the world was shocked as the Bosnian Muslims were the target of attempted genocide, most notably at Srebrenica. This paper will focus on the CIA estimate reports written by field officers on the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the US foreign policy towards the probable crisis in the region. The ethnic cleansing efforts targeting Bosnian Muslims, the awareness of US field officers of this process, and whether there were any pre-emptive measures to stop such brutal acts against humanity will also be analysed during this paper