The British And The Balkans

This book traces the evolution of British policy in former Yugoslavia, from the onset of war in Croatia and Bosnia to the NATO action in Kosovo and beyond, examining the underlying factors which have governed Britain's Balkans policy.

Ever since the end of the Cold War the Balkans have preoccupied European public opinion much more than any other region of the old Eastern bloc. To a large extent this is a result of the wars following the break-up of Yugoslavia. The conflicts of the 1990s raised a series of questions about the nature of Balkan history as compared to an assumed European norm. Even more, they triggered prolonged discussions on the form and timing of foreign engagement in the region, both during the war, and ahead of the eastward expansion of the European Union. These public debates underlay the emergence of a related academic interest in intercultural contacts between the Balkans and the rest of Europe over the last three centuries. The British and the Balkans is a close study of the history of the image of the Balkans in Britain in the first half of the 20th century, and of the channels through which this image was built. It proposes new interpretative models for broader research in the formation of public images of foreign lands.

Ever since the end of the Cold War the Balkans have preoccupied European public opinion much more than any other region of the old Eastern bloc. This is a study of the history of the public image of the Balkans in Britain from 1900-1945. It proposes interpretative models for broader research in the formation of public images of foreign lands.

For most of 1992-1995, Britain stood aside while an internationally recognised state was attacked by externally-sponsored rebels bent on a campaign of territorial aggression and ethnic cleansing. It was her unfinest hour since 1938. Based on interviews with many of the chief participants, parliamentary debates, and a wide range of sources, Brendan Simm's brilliant study traces the roots of British policy and the highly sophisticated way in which the government sought to minimise the crisis and defuse popular and American pressure for action. We all continue to live with the results of these shameful actions to this day.

The manner in which south-east Europe is viewed by western cultures has been an increasingly important area of study over the last twenty years. During the 1990s, the wars in the former Yugoslavia reactivated denigratory images of the region that many commentators perceived as a new, virulent strain of intra-European prejudice. British Literature and the Balkans is a wide-ranging and original analysis of balkanist discourse in British fiction and travel writing. Through a study of over 300 texts, the volume explores the discourse's emergence in the imperial nineteenth century and its extensive transformations during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. There will be a particular focus on the ways in which the most significant currents in western thought – Romanticism, empiricism, imperialism, nationalism, communism – have helped to shape the British concept of the Balkans.The volume will be of interest to those working in the area of European cross-cultural representation in the disciplines of Literary Studies, Cultural Studies, European Studies, Anthropology and History.

An incisive analysis of Britain's decision-making role in the Yugoslavian conflict of the 1990s and in the formation of its successor states. Tracing the evolution of British policy from the onset of war in Croatia and Bosnia to the NATO action in Kosovo, and beyond, this major work examines the underlying factors governing that policy, and its role in shaping the international 'consensus'. British policy is examined through parliamentary proceedings in the House of Commons and Lords, as well as through evidence offered at select committees, reports from political and humanitarian agencies, private interviews with protagonists and media coverage, in relation to the situation on the ground and to policy development on the part of other leading world powers and institutions.

Describes the evolution of public opinion and governmental policy in England throughout the Balkan Crisis of 1875-1878.

This book is the story of the British military involvement in Yugoslavia in the Second World War.

Between 1939 and 1941 Britain had a terrible dilemma. She was keen to see Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Yugoslavia join the Allies against Nazi Germany. But the 1939 Molotov Ribbentrop Pact had changed everything: the Balkan countries were far more afraid of Stalin than of Hitler. Britain and France were also concerned about the Soviets giving so much oil to Germany: in 1940 Britain almost went to war with the USSR in an attack on the Caucasus. This book looks at how Britain tried to solve these dilemmas and ultimately failed to do so.