NATO Versus Yugoslavia: 15 Years On

Yugoslavia was the first attempt to break the international security system built during the stable balance of power. The West, primarily the US, sought to impose their own rules of the game and code of conduct on the rest of the world. NATO’s aggression was a way to punish the disobedient.

On March 24, 1999, NATO launched a military operation against the former Yugoslavia. On that day the allies began bombing peaceful Serbian cities: Belgrade, Pristina, Uzice, Novi Sad, Kragujevac, Pancevo and Podgorica. They continued the air campaign with varying intensity until June 1999, killing and maiming the local population, destroying infrastructure, weakening the economy and leaving people without a roof over their heads and, ultimately, without a chance to lead a normal life.

Expert of the Valdai International Discussion Club and President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems Col-Gen Leonid Ivashov shared his views on the events in Yugoslavia, their origins, and the role of external actors.


Ivashov focused on geopolitics in his discussion of what happened in Yugoslavia 15 years ago and earlier. The international security and legal systems took shape in the bipolar world of the Soviet Union, when a stable balance of power existed. When the Soviet Union collapsed, he said, “We noticed that the Americans started looking askance at the norms of international law and the principles of the UN Charter.” They sought to create a precedent of overriding these norms and principles in order to impose their own rules of the game and code of conduct on the rest of the world. Yugoslavia was the first attempt to break the international security system built during the stable balance of power. The West, primarily the US, did not approve of the actions taken by the federation of Yugoslavia, and NATO’s aggression against it was a way to punish the disobedient.

Ivashov cited reputable Western sources showing that the World Bank discussed what to do with Yugoslavia in closed-door meetings in 1985. In the same year, NATO began planning an operation to destroy Yugoslavia and split it into several states.

The expert mentioned a quote attributed to Zbigniew Brzezinski that made the rounds in Western political science circles at the time: communism is finished, Orthodox Christianity is next. Ivashov noted that we have seen how Orthodox believers were set against Muslims, and how the former, primarily Serbians, were blamed for inflaming passions. To support his claim about the importance of religion, Ivashov recalled that one Vatican cardinal was directly in charge of converting Yugoslavs into Catholics.

Ivashov believes the Americans have formulated general principles from the “Yugoslav experience.” A 2008 US field manual bears this out. The section on stabilization operations states that the United States has no choice but to intervene to stabilize the situation in institutionally weak countries. This represents a new type of war.

He also discussed the popular book From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp, the founder and director of the Albert Einstein Institution. In the book, Sharp provides 198 methods of destabilizing different countries (any unpleasant country may be called a dictatorship).

Finally, Ivashov discussed the parallels between the events in Yugoslavia and the current developments in Ukraine, where the aim is to destroy the state and bury it in debt. The main goal is to separate Ukraine from Russia and to set their people against each other. It is very important to prevent a repeat of NATO’s Yugoslavia campaign in Ukraine. As for the Russian leader’s position on the situation in Ukraine, and Crimea in particular, Ivashov believes Russia did what it had to. He expressed confidence that Russia will succeed in its mission.

Views expressed are of individual Members and Contributors, rather than the Club's, unless explicitly stated otherwise.