The Serbian Project and Its Adversaries: A Strategy of War Crimes

In The Serbian Project and Its Adversaries James Gow provides the first military-political analysis of the Yugoslav conflicts, arguing that Slobodan Milosevic and his Serbian allies used ethnic cleansing as a method of creating and consolidating borders. Although he considers the approaches taken by Belgrade's adversaries, Gow argues that Serbia's deliberate strategy of ethnic cleansing was at the heart of the war and that it was in essence criminal; in other words, it was a strategy of war crimes. Based on interviews, examination of research undertaken by the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and other Yugoslav materials, The Serbian Project and Its Adversaries establishes the legitimacy of the Tribunal's jurisdiction. Gow distinguishes between acts of war, war crimes, and crimes against humanity and suggests that a strategic understanding of the war may mitigate some of the charges being made against Serbian military and political leaders.