Borders, Blood, and Betrayal: The Yugoslav Wars Explained

In this episode of The Perspicacious Perspective, we take a sharp, unflinching look at one of the most complex and tragic chapters of modern European history — the fall of Yugoslavia. From its post-World War II formation under the iron will of Josip Broz Tito to the brutal conflicts that tore it apart in the 1990s, we unravel the tangled web of politics, identity, and nationalism that fueled the Yugoslav Wars. We’ll explore how this multi-ethnic federation once held together, why it ultimately fractured, and what the legacy of its violent dissolution means for the Balkans today. Whether you’re new to the story or brushing up on the history you thought you knew, this episode offers a clear-eyed, insightful dive into a nation that no longer exists — but whose ghosts still linger.

Transcript

Welcome to another episode of The Perspicacious Perspective.

Ever heard of Yugoslavia?

Did you ever think it still existed somewhere in Europe?

Well don’t be too hard on yourself if you did because I too once wasn’t very sure about where it was, who was from there and whether it still existed. All I knew was that it was somewhere in Europe.

If you knew that at least then give yourself a pat on the back. If you didn’t, well it might be a good idea to listen to the rest of this episode.

This episode will tell you everything you need to know about Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav Wars, and where you would find Yugoslavia today.    

What were the Yugoslav Wars?

The Yugoslav Wars were a series of interconnected, ethnically charged conflicts that erupted in the Balkans during the 1990s, following the disintegration of what was called the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. 

Where is the Balkans?

The Balkans (or Balkan Peninsula) is a region in Southeast Europe, named after the Balkan Mountains that stretch from eastern Serbia into Bulgaria. It’s a geographically and historically complex area, known for its cultural diversity, shifting borders, and frequent conflicts over the centuries. 

What was the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia?

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was a multi-ethnic, socialist state in Southeast Europe that existed from the end of World War II until its disintegration in the early 1990s. Formed officially in 1945, Yugoslavia was a federation composed of six republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Additionally, within Serbia, there were two autonomous provinces — Kosovo and Vojvodina. What made Yugoslavia distinct was its diverse population, which included a wide array of ethnic, religious, and cultural groups such as Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks (or Bosnian Muslims), Slovenes, Macedonians, Albanians, and Montenegrins, among others.

The state emerged in the aftermath of World War II under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito.

Who was Josip Broz Tito?

Josip Broz Tito was a Communist partisan leader who had successfully resisted both Nazi occupation and local collaborators during the war. Tito became the country’s president and led Yugoslavia with an authoritative but pragmatic hand until his death in 1980. Under Tito’s rule, Yugoslavia developed a unique form of socialism independent of the Soviet Union. Unlike other Eastern Bloc countries that closely aligned with Moscow, Yugoslavia pursued a non-aligned position during the Cold War, maintaining relationships with both Western and Eastern powers and becoming a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961.

Economically, the country experimented with a system known as “self-management socialism,” where workers in state-run enterprises had a say in decision-making processes, which distinguished it from the more centralized economies of its Eastern Bloc neighbors. This system allowed Yugoslavia a comparatively higher standard of living and greater openness to the West. Tourists from Western Europe frequented Yugoslav resorts, and Yugoslav citizens enjoyed relatively more personal freedoms, such as the ability to travel abroad.

However, beneath this surface of unity, longstanding ethnic, religious, and national tensions persisted. Tito was highly adept at suppressing these rivalries through a combination of political repression, strategic decentralization, and a cult of personality that emphasized “brotherhood and unity.” After his death in 1980, the absence of his unifying presence, coupled with economic stagnation, rising nationalism, and the broader collapse of communism across Eastern Europe in the late 1980s, pushed Yugoslavia into a crisis.

By the early 1990s, the federal government was unable to contain the growing demands for independence from several of its republics. This ultimately led to the violent breakup of the country through a series of devastating conflicts known as the Yugoslav Wars, as republics like Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia declared independence, while Serbia and Montenegro attempted to preserve a reduced version of the federation, known briefly as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Who was the first country to declare independence from Yugoslavia?

Slovenia was the first to declare independence in June 1991, triggering a brief but decisive ten-day conflict with the Yugoslav People’s Army. The war resulted in minimal casualties, and Slovenia swiftly secured its independence. Croatia followed suit, but unlike Slovenia, its sizable ethnic Serb minority, backed by Serbia and the Yugoslav Army, resisted the move. 

Slovenia’s secession was comparatively straightforward because it had a small Serb minority and was geographically removed from the more ethnically mixed and contested regions like Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo. This separation spared Slovenia the kind of prolonged ethnic violence that devastated much of the rest of the former Yugoslavia.

What happened when Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia?

Croatia’s declaration of independence led to the Croatian War of Independence, which was a violent, ethnically charged conflict that took place between 1991 and 1995, as the newly declared Republic of Croatia fought to break away from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and establish itself as an independent nation. It was the second major war of the Yugoslav breakup, following Slovenia’s brief Ten-Day War, and became one of the bloodiest and most complex chapters in the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

Tensions leading to the war had been simmering for years, rooted in deep historical grievances and ethnic divisions between Croats and Serbs. Under communist Yugoslavia, these tensions had been suppressed by Josip Broz Tito’s firm rule, but after his death in 1980 and amid growing nationalist movements in the late 1980s, old animosities resurfaced. The election of a nationalist, pro-independence leader as president of Croatia in 1990 alarmed the sizable Serb minority living in Croatia, many of whom feared becoming second-class citizens in a Croat-dominated state.

On June 25, 1991, Croatia declared its independence, alongside Slovenia. While Slovenia’s conflict with the Yugoslav People’s Army was brief, Croatia’s situation was far more complicated. About 12% of Croatia’s population was ethnic Serb, and many lived in areas that formed a contiguous stretch along Croatia’s eastern and southern borders, close to Serbia. Supported by the Yugoslav Army and Serbia’s leader Slobodan Milošević, local Croatian Serbs established self-proclaimed breakaway territories and openly resisted Croatian government authority.

The war soon escalated into a full-scale conflict. The Yugoslav Army, claiming it was acting to protect Serbs, intervened alongside Serb paramilitary forces, attacking Croatian towns and cities. The siege and subsequent destruction of Vukovar in the fall of 1991 became a particularly grim symbol of the war’s brutality, with thousands killed and the town virtually leveled. The ancient city of Dubrovnik, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was also besieged and shelled, drawing international condemnation.

The conflict was characterized by intense fighting, sieges, ethnic cleansing, and atrocities committed by both sides, though Serb forces, with their superior weaponry and backing from the Yugoslav Army, initially had the upper hand. Thousands of Croats and non-Serbs were displaced from Serb-controlled areas, while Serbs in Croat-held regions also faced violence and persecution.

By 1992, the United Nations intervened, deploying peacekeepers to buffer warring factions and oversee ceasefires, though their effectiveness was limited. The war dragged on in sporadic fighting and uneasy truces for several years.

In 1995, Croatia launched two major military operations — Operation Flash in May and Operation Storm in August. Operation Storm was particularly decisive, as Croatian forces recaptured large swaths of Serb-held territory. The offensive effectively ended the war, although it also led to the displacement of around 200,000 ethnic Serbs, many of whom fled to Serbia and Bosnia.

The war formally concluded with the Erdut Agreement in November 1995 and the peaceful reintegration of remaining Serb-held regions in eastern Croatia by 1998. In total, the war claimed the lives of about 20,000 people, displaced hundreds of thousands, and left deep scars on the region.

Today, the war remains a sensitive and politically charged subject in both Croatia and Serbia. War crimes trials have taken place at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, with leaders and commanders from both sides held accountable for atrocities committed during the conflict.

Why does Bosnia and Herzegovina have two names?

Bosnia and Herzegovina sounds a bit like two countries joined together. In reality, it’s a single sovereign state, but the name reflects the country’s historical geography rather than two distinct political entities.

Under the Ottoman Empire, Bosnia and Herzegovina were often administratively linked, though Herzegovina retained its regional identity. When Austria-Hungary occupied the territory in 1878 and later formally annexed it in 1908, they maintained the combined name to reflect both regions' distinct histories and geographies within one administrative unit.

Today, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a single sovereign country, but internally it’s divided into two main political entities as a result of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the Bosnian War: The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (which is home to most Bosniaks and Croats) and The Republika Srpska (which is predominantly Serb).

There’s also a small, self-governing district called Brčko District, which is officially part of both entities but governed autonomously.

Interestingly, the historical regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina don’t perfectly align with these modern political divisions. Herzegovina is generally understood as the southern portion of the country, but there are no formal administrative borders separating it from Bosnia today. The two names remain paired in the country’s official name out of historical tradition and national identity, rather than representing two separate governing territories.

So what happened when Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence?

Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1992, shortly after Slovenia and Croatia had already done so in 1991. However, Bosnia’s path to independence was more complicated because of its deeply ethnically mixed population of Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), Serbs, and Croats, and because of the violent conflict it triggered.

In early 1992, the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina organized a referendum on independence. The vote took place on February 29 and March 1, 1992. About 63% of registered voters turned out — mostly Bosniaks and Croats, since most Bosnian Serbs boycotted the referendum under orders from their leadership, who wanted to remain part of Yugoslavia or merge with a "Greater Serbia."

The result was decisive: about 99.7% of those who voted supported independence. Based on this result, Bosnia and Herzegovina formally declared independence from Yugoslavia on March 3, 1992. The European Community (now the European Union) and the United States quickly recognized Bosnia’s independence in early April 1992.

But unlike in Slovenia and Croatia, where declarations of independence led to wars mostly between republics and the Yugoslav central army, in Bosnia the declaration immediately triggered a three-way civil war among the country’s own ethnic groups:

·       Bosniaks who supported independence and a unified multi-ethnic Bosnia

·       Bosnian Serbs who wanted to stay in Yugoslavia or create a Serb-controlled state

·       Bosnian Croats, who initially sided with Bosniaks but later pursued their own territorial ambitions

By April 1992, Bosnian Serb forces, with direct support from Serbia and the Yugoslav People’s Army, began attacking Bosnian towns and cities, igniting the Bosnian War, which would last until 1995.

What was the Bosnian War?

The Bosnian War was a brutal and ethnically driven conflict that took place between 1992 and 1995 in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was the deadliest of the Yugoslav Wars and is remembered for its horrific acts of ethnic cleansing, genocide, and the longest siege in modern European history. The war not only devastated Bosnia physically and socially but also left a lasting imprint on global discussions about humanitarian intervention, international justice, and ethnic conflict.

Almost immediately, conflict erupted between three primary factions: the Bosnian government forces (who were mostly Muslim Bosniaks), the Bosnian Serb forces, and the Bosnian Croat forces. Initially, the Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks were allied against the Serbs, but that relationship later broke down, leading to a temporary Croat-Bosniak conflict within the broader war.

The Bosnian Serb forces pursued a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed at removing non-Serbs from territories they controlled. This campaign involved mass killings, forced deportations, internment camps, torture, and the destruction of cultural and religious monuments. The most infamous atrocity of the war was the   massacre in July 1995, when Bosnian Serb forces overran the UN-declared “safe area” of Srebrenica and murdered more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys — an event later ruled as genocide by international courts.

Another horrifying aspect of the war was the Siege of Sarajevo, now the capital city of Bosian and Herzegovina, and lasted nearly four years, from April 1992 to February 1996. Bosnian Serb forces surrounded the capital, bombarding it with artillery and snipers, killing thousands of civilians in what became the longest siege of a capital city in modern warfare.

Despite repeated ceasefires and diplomatic efforts by the international community, the war dragged on. The United Nations deployed peacekeepers, but their limited mandate and reluctance to confront aggressors rendered them largely ineffective at stopping the bloodshed. International outrage grew over the atrocities being reported, but decisive intervention came only after the combination of the Srebrenica massacre and the continued siege of Sarajevo.

In August 1995, NATO launched Operation Deliberate Force, a sustained air campaign against Bosnian Serb military targets. This shift, combined with a ground offensive by Bosnian government and Croat forces, weakened the Bosnian Serbs’ position and forced them to the negotiating table.

The conflict formally ended with the signing of the Dayton Accords in December 1995. Brokered by the United States and held at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, the agreement preserved Bosnia’s borders but divided the country into two semi-autonomous entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (mostly Bosniaks and Croats) and the Republika Srpska (mostly Serbs), all under a weak central government.

By the war’s end, around 100,000 people had been killed, and over 2 million were displaced, making it the most devastating conflict in Europe since World War II. The war left deep scars in Bosnian society, both physically and psychologically, and many of its consequences continue to shape the country’s fragile politics and ethnic divisions today.

What happened when Macedonia declared independence?

When Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia on September 8, 1991, it did so peacefully, through a referendum in which about 95.5% of voters supported independence. Unlike the other Yugoslav republics, Macedonia didn’t have large, armed ethnic Serb communities or significant Yugoslav military installations on its territory, and it was seen as relatively peripheral to the ambitions of Slobodan Milošević’s Serbia. As a result, it managed to secede without war.

However, Macedonia’s path wasn’t entirely smooth. While Serbia and the Yugoslav People's Army withdrew without major conflict by early 1992, Macedonia faced a completely different challenge: a long and tense dispute with Greece over its name.

The issue arose because Greece objected to the new state calling itself "Republic of Macedonia", arguing that the name implied territorial claims on Greece’s northern region of Macedonia, which shares the same name and deep historical ties to Alexander the Great and ancient Macedonian history. Greece, fearing irredentist claims and cultural appropriation, strongly opposed the use of the name.

As a result the country was admitted to the United Nations in 1993 under the provisional name "The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia". Greece imposed a trade embargo on Macedonia in 1994–1995, which hurt the small country’s already fragile economy. Diplomatic negotiations dragged on for decades.

Meanwhile, Macedonia also faced internal tensions with its sizable ethnic Albanian minority, concentrated in the northwest of the country. While these tensions didn’t erupt into major violence during the Yugoslav breakup, they would lead to a brief armed conflict in 2001, known as the Macedonian Insurgency, between ethnic Albanian insurgents and Macedonian government forces.

The naming dispute with Greece was finally resolved in 2018–2019 with the Prespa Agreement, under which the country officially changed its name to "North Macedonia" in exchange for Greece lifting its objections to North Macedonia’s aspirations to join NATO and the European Union.

Did Montenegro ever declare independence from Yugoslavia?

Montenegro did eventually declare independence from Yugoslavia, but its path was slower and a bit different from the other republics. 

When Yugoslavia began to collapse in the early 1990s, Montenegro was the only republic besides Serbia that didn’t immediately seek independence. In fact, it stayed allied with Serbia during the Yugoslav Wars and even participated in military actions alongside Serbian forces, particularly during the siege of Dubrovnik in Croatia.

After Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia left, what was left of Yugoslavia was essentially Serbia and Montenegro, which reconstituted themselves in April 1992 as a new, smaller state called the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This new Yugoslavia was dominated by Serbia and ruled by Slobodan Milošević, while Montenegro remained a junior partner.

However, over the years, especially by the late 1990s and early 2000s, Montenegro began drifting away from Serbia. Discontent grew over Milošević’s increasingly authoritarian rule, international sanctions, and Montenegro’s economic hardships, which led to calls for greater autonomy.

In 2003, after years of political tension, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was restructured and renamed the "State Union of Serbia and Montenegro". This arrangement gave both republics more independence while keeping them loosely united. Crucially, the agreement allowed for either republic to hold a referendum on full independence after three years.

And that’s exactly what happened.

On May 21, 2006, Montenegro held a national referendum on independence. The European Union set a high bar, requiring at least 55% of the vote in favor for the result to be accepted internationally. The vote was extremely close but passed with 55.5% voting for independence.

On June 3, 2006, Montenegro formally declared independence, dissolving its union with Serbia and becoming the last of the former Yugoslav republics to achieve full sovereignty. Serbia followed suit two days later, declaring itself the legal successor state to Serbia and Montenegro.

While Montenegro remained aligned with Serbia for much of the 1990s, it gradually developed a separate national identity, currency and foreign policy — all of which made eventual independence feel inevitable by the early 2000s.

How did Serbia respond when Montenegro officially declared independence?

When Montenegro declared independence on June 3, 2006, the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro officially ceased to exist. Two days later, on June 5, 2006, the National Assembly of Serbia declared that Serbia would be the legal and political successor to the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

In practical terms, this meant a few key things: Serbia inherited international legal rights and obligations of the former state, including memberships in international organizations like the United Nations. They inherited diplomatic relationships, treaties, debts, and responsibilities. And Serbia perforce inherited the seat of Serbia and Montenegro at the UN and other bodies — Serbia simply continued in that position without interruption, much like Russia inherited the Soviet Union’s UN Security Council seat in 1991.

This was a fairly smooth transition because, even within the State Union, Serbia was the dominant partner with most of the population, territory, military, and institutions already based in Belgrade.

Serbia did not claim to be the successor to the original Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. That issue had already been settled in the 1990s. Back then, Serbia and Montenegro had tried to assert themselves as the sole successor to Yugoslavia when it fell apart, but the international community rejected that, deciding instead that all former republics were equal successor states to the original Yugoslavia.

So, in 2006, Serbia was only taking over the legal identity of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, not the old Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

For Serbia, this also marked the restoration of full national sovereignty for the first time since before the formation of Yugoslavia in 1918. It had spent nearly a century inside larger South Slavic unions — first the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), then communist Yugoslavia, and finally the Serbia and Montenegro union.

Now independent, Serbia had to re-establish its own independent diplomatic corps, restructure its military, manage its own economy and currency, and continue navigating the unresolved and deeply sensitive issue of Kosovo, which would declare its own independence in 2008.

Where is Kosovo, were they ever part of Yugoslavia, and did they ever successfully declare independence?

Kosovo is a small, landlocked region in the central Balkans, bordered by Serbia to the north and east, Montenegro to the west, North Macedonia to the south and Albania to the southwest.

Its capital and largest city is Pristina.

When Yugoslavia existed (both as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and later as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), Kosovo was not a republic like Serbia, Croatia, or Bosnia. Instead, tt was an autonomous province within the Republic of Serbia, along with another province, Vojvodina, in the north.

During the socialist Yugoslav era under Josip Broz Tito, Kosovo was granted significant autonomy in 1974, with its own government, assembly, police, and representation in federal institutions — though it remained officially part of Serbia.

Ethnically, Kosovo was (and still is) majority Albanian Muslim, with a Serb minority. Tensions between the two communities were a constant undercurrent in Yugoslav history.

In the 1990s, after the other Yugoslav republics began breaking away, Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians sought greater autonomy and then outright independence from Serbia.

In 1999, following a brutal conflict known as the Kosovo War, NATO intervened with a 78-day bombing campaign against Serbia to stop the Serbian military's crackdown on Kosovo Albanians.

After the war, Kosovo was placed under United Nations administration, though it technically remained part of Serbia.

On February 17, 2008, Kosovo’s assembly unilaterally declared independence from Serbia.

Was it successful?

Yes, in practical terms. Kosovo functions as a fully independent country with its own government, military, currency, and foreign relations.

As of 2024, over 100 countries have recognized Kosovo's independence, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and most of the European Union.

However, Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence and considers it an integral part of its sovereign territory.

Russia, China, and several other countries (including five European Union members: Spain, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, and Cyprus) also refuse to recognize Kosovo.

The issue remains one of the biggest roadblocks to both Serbia and Kosovo’s ambitions of joining the European Union.

Why is Kosovo so important to Serbia?

For Serbs, Kosovo is seen as the historic and spiritual cradle of the Serbian medieval state and Orthodox Christianity, home to many important monasteries and the site of the legendary Battle of Kosovo in 1389, where medieval Serbian forces fought the Ottoman Empire.

That’s why Kosovo’s independence remains a deeply emotional and political issue in Serbia to this day.

What was Yugoslavia like before it formed officially in 1945?

Before Yugoslavia even existed in name, the Balkans were divided between two major empires: The Ottoman Empire controlled much of Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and parts of Serbia and Montenegro. The Austro-Hungarian Empire ruled over Slovenia, Croatia, Vojvodina, and annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908.

The region was ethnically diverse and politically fragmented, home to:

·       Serbs (mostly Orthodox Christian)

·       Croats and Slovenes (mostly Roman Catholic)

·       Bosniaks (who were Muslim)

·       Albanians (who were both Muslim and Catholic)

·       Montenegrins (who were Orthodox Christian)

·       Along with Jews, Roma, Turks, and others

And it was often unstable, marked by rebellions, wars for independence, and nationalist uprisings.

After World War I ended and both the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires collapsed, the South Slavic peoples sought to unify into a single state.

 In December 1918, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was formed, later renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929.

Serbia played a dominant role in this new kingdom because it had emerged from WWI on the victorious side and already had its monarchy installed at the top.

The kingdom attempted to unite diverse peoples, but ethnic tensions persisted, especially between Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, who had different historical allegiances, religious traditions, and national aspirations.

There was constant political instability: assassinations, coups, and power struggles.

In 1929, King Alexander I suspended the constitution, dissolved parliament, and ruled as a dictator in an attempt to suppress ethnic nationalism. He was assassinated in 1934 by a Croatian nationalist in collaboration with a Macedonian revolutionary group.

When World War II broke out, Yugoslavia tried to remain neutral, but pressure from Nazi Germany and internal divisions made that impossible.

In April 1941, Axis powers invaded Yugoslavia: the country was swiftly defeated and carved up by Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria.

Several puppet states were created, the most infamous being the Independent State of Croatia, a Nazi-aligned fascist regime which committed mass atrocities against Serbs, Jews, Roma, and anti-fascist Croats.

Meanwhile, two major resistance movements emerged: the Chetniks — were Serbian royalist and nationalist fighters loyal to the exiled Yugoslav monarchy; and the Partisans — were a communist, multi-ethnic resistance led by Josip Broz Tito.

Tito’s Partisans gained increasing strength through effective guerrilla warfare and ultimately received Allied support over the Chetniks (who were accused of collaborating with Axis forces in certain cases).

By 1945, Tito and his Partisans had liberated most of Yugoslavia.

After the war, King Peter II (then in exile) was deposed, and Tito declared the formation of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia — a communist federation of six republics including:

·       Slovenia

·       Croatia

·       Bosnia and Herzegovina

·       Montenegro

·       Serbia

·       Macedonia

And two autonomous provinces within Serbia:

·       Kosovo

·       Vojvodina

This new Yugoslavia was modeled after communist ideals but distinct from the Soviet Union. It became non-aligned and a relatively open, independent socialist state under Tito’s leadership until his death in 1980.

What’s the relationship between the former Yugoslavia countries like today?

Slovenia is the most distant, literally and politically, from the rest of the former Yugoslavia.

It had the shortest, least destructive war of independence (the Ten-Day War in 1991) and quickly integrated into Western institutions.

It’s a member of the European Union and NATO and generally has cordial but limited relations with the other ex-Yugoslav states.

No significant disputes remain, though relations with Croatia have occasionally been tense over border issues.

Croatia has tense but improving relations with Serbia, mostly because of the brutal Croatian War of Independence and lingering disputes about war crimes, missing persons, and refugees.

It’s a member of the EU and NATO and maintains normal diplomatic relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, though it has vested interests in the status of Bosnian Croats.

Relations with Slovenia are generally stable despite occasional border and maritime disputes.

Bosnia remains deeply divided internally between its three constituent peoples: Muslim Bosniaks, Catholic Croats, and Orthodox Serbs.

The Republika Srpska, the Serb-dominated political entity within Bosnia, maintains close ties to Belgrade and occasionally threatens secession.

Bosnia and Serbia have formal diplomatic relations but underlying distrust persists because of the Bosnian War and atrocities like the Srebrenica genocide.

Relations with Croatia are generally more constructive but sometimes strained over the status and political rights of Croats in Bosnia.

Montenegro has mostly normal relations with its neighbors.

It recognized Kosovo’s independence in 2008, which strained ties with Serbia for a while.

Relations with Serbia have been uneasy in recent years, especially over disputes about religious institutions, national identity, and NATO membership (Montenegro joined NATO in 2017, against Serbia’s wishes).

Montenegro has worked to balance ties with both the European Union and its Balkan neighbors.

North Macedonia has generally good relations with its former Yugoslav neighbors.

It resolved a long-standing name dispute with Greece in 2019, which opened the door for NATO and EU integration.

It has normal, pragmatic relations with Serbia, Kosovo, and Albania.

And like Montenegro, it recognized Kosovo’s independence, which Serbia opposes.

Kosovo is the most politically isolated in the region:

Serbia refuses to recognize its independence and actively lobbies other countries to withdraw recognition.

Relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina are non-existent, as Bosnia also doesn’t recognize Kosovo due to pressure from the Republika Srpska.

Relations with Croatia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia are normal and cooperative.

Tensions with Serbia periodically flare up, particularly in Serb-majority areas of northern Kosovo.

Serbia’s relationships are shaped by its refusal to recognize Kosovo and its historical role in the wars.

Relations with Croatia and Bosnia remain complicated, though trade and diplomacy continue.

Serbia maintains close ties with the Republika Srpska in Bosnia, and its relations with Montenegro have cooled due to disagreements over NATO, religion, and Kosovo.

It has reasonably good relations with North Macedonia and remains a key economic partner in the region.

Despite lingering tensions, all the former Yugoslav countries (except Kosovo) participate in regional initiatives like the Berlin Process, Open Balkan, and CEFTA (a free trade agreement).

Cultural, sports, and personal ties across borders remain strong — many people have family, friends, or business links in neighboring countries.

EU membership aspirations have pushed several countries to improve bilateral relations, though unresolved disputes (especially over Kosovo and Bosnian constitutional reforms) continue to complicate things.

In summary, today’s relationships among the former Yugoslav republics are a mixture of normal diplomatic and economic cooperation, unresolved wartime grievances and nationalist rhetoric, ongoing disputes over Kosovo’s status and Bosnia’s internal politics, and shared regional interests and Eeropean Union integration goals.

It’s a region marked by both fragile peace and deep historical memory — where progress happens, but old wounds still shape politics and identity.