ABSTRACT
The breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the civil war in Bosnia generated a trail of carnage visible to all the world. This conflict created a conundrum for Western leaders. This was, it must be remembered, the region from which the First World War spawned. Each side in the conflict had its traditional allies in a world uncertain enough that the smallest mistakes held the seeds of a larger disaster. Any intervention, although critical to peace and stability, called for delicacy and caution.
